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Telling the Bees: Kyriaki Goni on Building a Game from a Stranger's Gift · The Killscreen Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: There's this ritual that's practiced in rural communities across Europe and The Mediterranean for centuries where when something significant happens in a household, you go to the beehive and you tell the bees. A death, a birth, a marriage, You introduce to them what's changed. The belief is that if you don't, if you keep secrets from,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: you
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: know, the bees, they'll just fly away. I was thinking about this and what it means to extend kindness, that kind of respect to a nonhuman life. To treat a swarm of insects is something that deserves to be informed, that has a right to know. That's the world Greek artist Kyriaki Building is building. Her game, Telling the Bees, follows a character called the Bee Seeker, a figure navigating a near future Aegean archipelago.
• 0:45
  Bees have nearly vanished, ecosystems are collapsing, and the landscape itself feels like a character in mourning. What makes this project extraordinary is how she got here. When she was 18, a stranger on a remote Greek island handed her a woven basket that in some ways would change her life. The kind the kind people once used to catch and house bee swarms. She carried it with her for years.
• 1:07
  And then three years ago, she started making a game about it. I'm Jaimon Warren, and this is Killscreen. Today, I'm talking to Kyriaki about her anthropology background, the near future ecology of her fictional archipelago, and why she wants players to perform the waggle dance to unlock parts of her game. This is a great conversation. I've been thinking about bees a lot.
• 1:26
  I garden a ton, so let's get into it. Okay.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Alright. What what is, what is his name? PheVos. Okay. Alright.
• 1:36
  Well, how did you how did you pick that name?
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I just actually, it's funny because while I was pregnant, I was sure that I will, you know, name him like that. Yeah. And then, yeah, there was a bit there was a discussion with my partner, of course, and then eventually, I convinced him, which is like, you know, because in Greece, it's, like, quite typical to have your to name the kids after a parent, like the name of one of the of the parents. But, yeah, sometimes you don't do that. And I was, yeah, I was very determined to have this name, which is
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Actually a name that means also nice things like like this full of light, and it's like it was it's it was used to as as a second name, Theopholium, like the god upon them. Okay. It's it means, like, light and, you know, something like that. So it's it's nice. And what's the the name of your daughter?
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Sibley. It's the name of an ornithologist. Like a
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Ah. Good dream.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Nice. Yeah. Did. So not
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: no parents No parents. No parents
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: thieves. That's less common. I mean, they used to be much more common. My my grandfather was a junior. It was it it used to be much more common to
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Like, name your kids after their parents. But mostly for boy mostly for boys. Almost always for boys. Never for girls. So yeah.
• 3:06
  And then you would have junior or the or the third or the fourth or something like that. But it's less it's less common now. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 3:14
  Grandparents, that's more common. Her middle name is are my my my grandmother's name. So you see more of that, like, they meet after a family member or, you know, an uncle or having a middle name that's a family member or something like that.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Well, let's get started. You so this all so for for for Telling the
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Bees, this started with a with a gift that you received when you were 18.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Is that is
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: that right? Tell me about what it is that you Yes. What did what did you get? And
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: So yeah. It it's actually, like, a big story that actually emerged for only one object, let's say. So I was 18, and I was hiking on an island in Greece, which is in the Southeast of the Aegean Archipelago, and it's called Ticaria. And, you know, at some point, I was going through a village, and I met this lady, and she invited me for a coffee. And, you know, it's like it's quite hot.
• 4:18
  And then you say, of course, I would like to have a coffee. And then in her kitchen, I observed this weird I noticed this weird object, like this basket that was woven out of thin branches. And I asked her what is used for, and she told me that they actually use this kind of baskets to swarm or host bees. And in Greek, she used this word which is and is actually swarm.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: And then she told me, you can have it. You know? Okay. And I just took the gift and I went back to Athens, which is my hometown. Funnily enough, I mean, that that was an adventurous trip because we were actually trapped on the island because of a huge strike that has happened back yet in the in the ships.
• 5:14
  And eventually, when we managed to travel back to to Athens, I I took this picture on the on the port with me holding this basket, like, really happy that eventually I could go back to to Athens. I mean, don't get me wrong. It was a perfect island, but, you know, staying without against your will on an island for so many days is it's, like, kind of weird. So this is how it happened. I then I got this basket all over, you know, in the places I was staying or in my studio.
• 5:46
  And I it's I think it was three years ago where I started thinking that I want to make something out of that. And initially, I mean I mean, these baskets, most of the times, they are changing from trees, for example, upside down so that the cone base is up. Gotcha. But I was you know, I started thinking what if I could make it look like a backpack so I can put it on on my back and, like so this is how I started singing about stri stripes and elements that yeah. I could That I could put on and also mend it a bit because it was a little bit old.
• 6:26
  Like, I was back like 18. I was 18 back then. And eventually, I started, like, you know, thinking about this object. And then at some point, I was invited to be part of an exhibition. And then I said, okay, I'm gonna start working on that object and allow a story to be, you know, to to to to get to get a form.
• 6:48
  And eventually, I came up with this character, which is the bee seeker, and she actually shared this basket. Not not shared. She's gifted this basket as if, you know, she's following my my story in a way. So she's gifted this basket, and and she she she tries to figure out what this basket is used for. And then eventually she decides to, you know, to to use it and to embark on this mission, let's say, to find the last surviving bees.
• 7:20
  Having this said that, back then, I didn't know what this basket I mean, I had this this, you know, information by this lady. But three years ago, I I indeed started researching about this, and I I found out that this is a form that is has been used widely in different cultures and areas before the box beehive that was introduced at So some people would make things from from materials that they have in abundance around them. Branches or clay sometimes or, you know, the like textiles. You know? So everything that was in in in in rich in a way.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah. That's interesting. So it was a mysterious object for you, and it becomes a mysterious object for the character and the game as well. Is that right?
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Yes. Okay. Yes. Exactly. Yeah.
• 8:21
  Exactly.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Did you ever try to use it to to catch bees?
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: No. I I I haven't. I haven't. But but I I have discussed with beekeepers that they for example, I met, like, a person who actually was, like, beekeeping, and he told me that in he remembers his his grandfather to use this kind of stuff back in the day, for example, this kind of of of baskets. And also an interesting information that I came across because as I told you, it's it's found in different cultures, also in different times.
• 9:04
  So there are small this is also something that I I I exhibit alongside the work. So the research glass case, let's say, where I put all the research material. And that is interesting because you can find, for example, this small Byzantine paintings that they are very elaborated, and you can see these baskets also. And the most past reference that we have is actually 7,000 ago in a cave painting near Valencia, where we have this female figure holding this basket surrounded by bees. Not at this basket.
• 9:47
  Okay.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. That's super interesting. Did did you have an interest in in bees otherwise aside from this basket, like, as a as an animal or as an insect friend?
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: In general, yes, but not in the you know, in a way that I would put it in an artwork. You know? I was like, I was reading about the bees. I was like, I know some things about how they are, like, you know, pollinating and how they are, like, different organs and so on and so forth. But as as an as a curious reader, let's say.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Tell me a bit about
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: the character design for the bee seeker. You have some functional references that are in there, Inuit snow goggles, sandals, some discarded tires, you know, goat boots for steep rocky terrain. Tell me about, like, some of the survival choices, like, some of the because all of these objects are also or many of these objects are kind of, like, objects for survival in a in a harsh environment. Tell me about the process of developing developing, like, the character design for the bee seeker character.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: I I actually start by writing this story and imagining as a case study the in the near future. So I don't know if you have ever visited, but there is this area, like a specific group of islands within the Aegean Archipelago, which is rather harsh, like cliffs and, like, really, like, dry landscapes and, like, very windy and, like, the sunlight is, like, killing you in a way. So I was I I had that in mind. So this is why I use specific, like like, this parachute to harness the strong wind or the goggles that can, like, you know, protect you from the strong sunlight and the wind. So they the the environment that I had in mind was these these islands out there quite hard Okay.
• 11:50
  To survive. But there is also a connection with the situation that is right now happening on this island, which is like over tourism and the the habitat habitat loss of many organisms, animals, including bees. So there is also a big discussion about that right now. That big, actually. It should be a big discussion, but it's not that big.
• 12:18
  But yeah. So this is the background of the story. So it's a near future. And, like, you see also these hotels and infrastructure that they're almost, like, collapsing in a way because some people have the, like, huge ideas of creating huge infrastructures in tiny islands and so on and so forth. So this is the background of the character of the character design.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Alright. That's it. If you like this conversation, conversation, would like to
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: keep continuing to listen to
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: it, you can head on over to our members podcast. You can sign up for
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: it at killscreen.com if it peaks your fancy. Please check out our website. I'm always publishing new things. Follow us on Instagram. Like this episode on your favorite podcast app.
• 12:59
  You know, all the normal stuff. Alright. See you soon.