http://www.ted.com/talks/marcel_dicke_why_not_eat_insects.html
Marcel Dicke asked "Why not eat insects?" in July 2010 at TED. Vincent M. Holst asked the same question in 1885.
http://www.ted.com/talks/marcel_dicke_why_not_eat_insects.html
Marcel Dicke asked "Why not eat insects?" in July 2010 at TED. Vincent M. Holst asked the same question in 1885.
Although we're researching links between ants and electricity (particularly those nasty critters Solenopsis invicta and Lasius neglectus), we like magnetism too. This video rather beautifully shows a variety of magnetic fields on ferrous materials, and acts as a source of inspiration for the films that will document Physical Virus' ant ballet.
Of course, it's worth remembering that one of the early concepts for the project involved Ferrofluids...
Odontomachus, a carniverous genus of ant, have jaws that can close at 140mph. In the above video, researchers from the University of Arizona show some incredible footage of these ants snapping their jaws against objects in order to perform staggering jumps through the air.
Odantomachus bauri showing off huge jaws. Grr! Image: Wikimedia.
This is a beautiful project about making trails with GPS signals. Takahiro Yamaguchi cycled around the streets of Shibuya with a GPS receiver, recording locations, images and sound. This was then fed back into a computer with Processing, and turned into a region-specific typeface.
The gallery presentation is beautifully simple, but highlights the time and effort this project took.
Project website / download the typeface / view the trails on Google Maps
via Cesar Harada
Related, but less poetic: Read Ann Rand
A selection of videos as visual (and aural!) stimuli for the Physical Virus project.
Physical Virus is involving some fantastic musicians with Fiorella Lavado's weaving soon – watch this space!
Pseudo-pheromone trail tracking. Pheromone signals approximated by visual tracking – research suggests that not all ants lay trails all the time, but this is a nice introduction to the concept of trail-laying.
Urban Tick records a lot of GPS trails and turns them into visualisations. If you like this, also look at Plan B (who utilised this technology back when it was expensive!).
Digital technology such as GPS and augmented-reality applications (the so-called data-layer) are enabling us to become more like ants or bees in laying digital signals. Facebook Places and Foursquare are excellent examples of this, and technologies such as these are only going to become more prominent in the coming years.
Lumibots are small, autonomous robots that move around and leave light trails on luminescent surfaces. If you're interested in Lumibots without the lumination, or swarm behaviour, look at James McLurkin's Swarm Robots page (or any other MIT Swarm project, for that matter).
Know of any other similar projects? Send me a link!
Godot Machine is a device to hold an ant in one place for as long as possible. It is the first in a series of investigations and installations by Ollie Palmer as part of the Physical Virus project. Iteration 5 is currently being developed.
www.physicalvirus.com
NB – This video is currently being exhibited at the Bartlett School of Architecture Summer Show (until 3 July 2010).
fiorellalavado
Ollie Palmer
0 Comments