For three days, from Friday 6 to Sunday, June 8, 2014, we have attended the workshop organized by the Telefónica Foundation in which we have known much more than fascinating world of ants and we have done fun experiments with some of them and who live in the city. On Saturday June 7 we went to the Sabatini gardens to collect ants with which we build experiments in which the arduino plate, already Sunday June 8, had a great role. The sessions were led by Kuai Shen, an Ecuadorian artist and naturalist specialized in the use of ants with which it performs spectacular audiovisual montages without interfering with its life cycle of hunting, gathering, feeding and reproduction.
Listening to the experience of Kuai was very interesting to learn more about ants, how they are organized, what their habitats are, what differences they have on continents and countries, what they eat, how they reproduce, the role of the queen ant and much more. Although the most spectacular was know your way of working based on imagination, creativity and the application of simple technological tools to make very amazing artistic creations. And, Kuai went beyond the scientific analysis of ants to know and analyze them and build their audiovisual installations in which insects participate in the artistic process. Many of those ideas are those that Kuai presented to us in the workshop and that the kids were encouraged to put into practice.
We went hunting the Sabatini Gardens although we went through the Spain Square:
The first thing was to build a homemade vacuum cleaner, although there are fantastic gadgets in stores to do so. The objective was to hunt ants to use them in the artistic installations that we were going to carry out in the subsequent workshop and which were carried out in the fantastic facilities of the Telefónica Foundation in Fuencarral street in Madrid.
The kids who came to the workshop were Children between the ages of 8 and 16 with an interest in technology, audiovisuals and video games. In addition, the call indicated that they had to have an interest in the natural world, particularly that of the ants, to which they had to show curiosity, respect and admiration for their habitat.
In the following photograph you can see Kuai, who also appears in the first image in the process of aspiration, showing us where we can find ants in the cities. And is that ants need protein so they are very present in the areas where you can get juices such as plants, trees, shrubs and gardens in general. So there we went to look for them:
We were in the Sabatini Gardens, from which the perspective of the Plaza de España is imposing:
After the capture and having learned a lot about ants we went to the workshop to work with electronic boards and components. We were playing with mini Arduinos that connected properly and with the appropriate circuitry allowed to interact with the ants and build audiovisual creations. For example, we work with light sensors that when covered by the passage of ants could generate sounds on other devices or pull strings to open or close gates or even a piano which was activated when ants, which can conduct electricity, touched the wires.
We learned that possibilities of performing artistic creations are endless and although we did not have much time in the workshop to build a definitive installation, we learned that it was very easy to work with the Arduinos, get quick results and surely we will eventually respond to new challenges. For example, at home, we can put ants in a box and put sensors in it that, managed by the Arduino, could transform the space in the box, play with the lights or get sounds.
We congratulate the Fundación Telefónica for the invitation to the workshopThe kids had a great time and learned a lot about ants. We also have to congratulate Kuai Shen that in addition to his explanations and participation with children is an artist who has obtained a honorific mention in VIDA 13.2 with the work Oh! m1gas: biomimetric stridulation environment and the Production Incentive in VIDA 14.0 by the Ancestral Bio-Logics project: the Emerging Yupana. About the Yupana I hope to speak with Kuai again because it is a device used by the Incas to tell, like an abacus, and about which Kuai is going to make interesting artistic creations. Meanwhile, you can meet Kuai and his creations a little more in the link below.
