What if every thought was a movement, and every movement a thought? What is intelligence and when is it artificial? Can robots dance? Can they help our children learn how to be? How are we learning, and do we ever stop? What are the values and skills that we pass on as societies through games, crafts, stories and cinema?

Connecting scenes of pedagogy, work and play in four global sites, The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze invites viewers to consider the mechanics of learning. We search in the cabinets of a supercomputer, in the curve of a chalked letter, in the weaving of a basket. We jump down the rabbithole and seek counsel from researchers and public intellectuals.

Curiosity and the affordances of the essay form send us grazing, observing, and thinking through film with an open heart. In The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze, we wonder afresh what the human spirit might yet dream up as new and improved programming for our species.