Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Anthill Art?


Watch

This is a video of molten aluminum being poured into a fire at colony. The result provides really amazing insight into the complexity of the tunnels these insects form.


Supposedly this species is an imported invader, which might justify death by molten fluid...

The artist sells these sculptures here: http://www.anthillart.com


- Ian

1 comment:

andrew s.yang said...

Yes, there has been some controversy around this guy around the potential cruelty to ants possibly involved.

Walter Tschinkel, a biologist at Florida State, was the one who really developed this technique for the purposes of research:

http://www.core77.com/blog/architecture/walter_tschinkels_aluminum_casts_of_ant_colonies_reveals_insect_architecture_23607.asp

I've even gone out with him to do it! It is a beautiful artifact, but I'm more impressed by both Walter's science and craftsmanship