The magical chemistry of honey is that sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose) are kept sealed together with minerals, vitamins, enzymes and some carbohydrates in a sharply specific amount of water in a honeycomb made of beeswax which is used as a building material, as well as a sealing film against intruders of the hive such as small bugs and flies. Honey also contains a micro amount of hydrogen peroxide which protects itself and the hive from bacterias and microbes.

The amount of water plays a crucial part in the process. Honeybees pass the nectar to each other and they cluster to generate heat and evaporate the excess water in the honey. This specific balance between water and the other ingredients defines the clearness of the honey which means it may crystallize in higher humidities shortly after harvesting or after mixing honey with even a small amount of water because honey is hydrophilic and attracts even atmospheric water molecules. Water balance is also one of the reasons that the bees seal the honeycomb with wax after making the chemical adjustments, and completing the production process.

A small rural society lives in the northwest of Turkey – Ormanlı Village, where beekeeping is widely practiced with a blend of traditional and modern knowledge for generations, since, the village has a rich flora. Several years ago, Kadircan Yüksel who is one of the members of this society, demonstrated a unique materiality of the honey. He spread a spoon of honey on a flat plate and poured water on it. After 20 seconds of slowly moving the plate in a horizontal circular motion, honeycomb-like patterns became visible on the surface of the honey.

The interplay of honey and water apparently has a creative potential. Patterns appeared in the form of tessellated temporal structures. The shape and the density of the pores were very close in each sample and they resembled voronoi structures rather than honeycomb patterns.

First step of the experimentation process of this phenomena was applying the technique on different types and brands of honey following with highly viscous liquids that are available on the market in order to iterate the process and compare the results. Linden honey, flower honey, organic flower honey, wild flower honey and creamy flower honey of different brands are decided as first samples. A spoon of each one of the ingredients is applied in a circular form to a plate and 1 cm height of water is added on top. The patterns on the surface become visible in the first 30 seconds. Fir tree syrup, artificial rose syrup and carob extract have given similar results. Water tasted sweet afterwards.

Apparently, what is causing this behavior of honey is not unique to honey itself. It is a weak phenomena that emerges from the interaction of viscous sugary liquid, water, plate and action. Phase portrait mainly consists of these four actants, which gives four degrees of freedom to the system according to DeLanda. It also has a threshold that is defined by various parameters such as atmospheric conditions and temperature. As the temperature and water percentage increase, sugary liquid gets thinner, therefore, patterns become less likely observable. If DeLanda’s theory of bifurcations are applied on these observations, water would be the one point attractor of this system that changes the material property slowly alongside providing an environment as a medium and creating an attraction force by gradually dissolving the sugar. (Surely the material state of the water is affected and can be manipulated by the atmospheric conditions which can be considered as another degree of freedom of the system that affects water as a medium.) Hand generated circular periodic oscillations and wave interference patterns can be considered as bifurcation actors. “see figs. 2/3/4” .

Solitons on the surface of the medium are later translated on the surface of the honey rather than accurately projected. The tendency of the system heads towards a dissolution until the water is saturated sufficiently under the current conditions that are also defined by the environmental conditions. DeLanda further adds that “In the case of chemical self-organization two distinct forces are at work: the rate at which the substances diffuse and the rate at which they react with each other.”  In this physical self-organization of the honey case, it can also be remarked that these two factors were active throughout the whole process of occurrence. Diffusion and reaction processes were very entangled and nearly omnipresent. As the sugar dissolved in the water with the motion and diffused in, self-organized tessellated patterns became observable in seconds as a form of a reaction of the matter itself.

Tahini and spreadable biscuit have also been included in the experimentation process because of their highly viscous characteristics due to their sugar and fiber content, however, no patterns have been observed. In fact, tahini started to tear as islands which are covered with sesame oil and isolated itself from the water. “see fig. 5.2”

Low viscous liquids are known to generate specific patterns changing according to different frequencies given on the vibration generator. Honey is explored further under the influence of digitally created vibrations, on aluminum foil and on the device plate directly. Motion on the surface is observed yet not in the form of continuous symmetrical geometric patterns even after minutes. Honey is thinned by adding some water, and small scaled patterns have been observed on the surface. Hand generated waves are surely different from the electronically created versions in terms of consistency, frequency and wavelength. These variables also have to match with the density of the material in a specific way for this materiality to emerge.

Materializing and making this phenomena tangible was essential in the process. However, when the main attractor in this case water, is removed from the system, patterns are affected from gravity and the matter precipitates, in other words, collapses on itself. In order to solidify the self organized patterns, beeswax is decided to be included to the system. 1 gram of beeswax is melted and mixed with 20 grams of honey and poured into a plate. Water in 40° Celcius is added on top, yet, it solidified and teared without creating any patterns. Beeswax and honey do not mix with each other in the molecular level, which makes sense when considering production process of honey.

The same mixture is prepared, poured in the plate and heated with a hairdryer by giving the hairdryer horizontal circular oscillations. Self organized patterns have been observed on the surface. “see fig. 8”. The matter is fragile and porous since the honey does not mix with beeswax and creates honey bubbles. Beeswax acts as a repeller of this system which results in creating porous structures while air flow which is combination of movement and matter creates bifurcations and tessellated patterns.

Schmidt, Justin O. “Bee Products.” In Bee Products: Properties, Applications, and Apitherapy, edited by Avshalom Mizrahi and Yaacov Lensky, 15–26. Boston, MA: Springer US, 1997.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9371-0_2.

DeLanda, Manuel. “Nonorganic Life” in Zone 6: Incorporations, edited by Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter, 136-38. New York: Urzone, 1992.