Contextual Statement

Here is my contextual statement plus some pictures from the development of my project:

Contextual Statement

Marty Martin

        We are allowing a human to understand the behaviours of a worker ant and comparing that to a human. Showing that a worker ant is set with specific instructions that are for a greater cause outside of the ants understanding of its colony. The human will be immersed into their perception of what a worker ant life is like by altering their visual senses into a virtual world. From the visually simulated ant’s perception, the only choices are to scout out for food and bring it back to the base or follow in the paths of others using visual 3d pheromone trails to already found food. An ant’s strongest sense is smell and a human’s is sight. For the human to have a perception of what an ant’s life is like, the human has to see what an ant smells. This would be the ground, food and any pheromone tracks.   

Video Glasses

        The individual only understands what it is doing and will never be able to see the full extent of the system it is part of. The importance of the one ant can only be strengthened from other ants and the one ant will not sustain life by itself. That said the colony could still last without the individual because of the number of ants working for one unified goal, stopping any individuality between the ants. The impact of the individual ant can only be seen from an outside perspective. A communication network seen from pheromones shows the impact of the one ant.

My attempt at a ultrasonic picaxe transmitter

        For a human to be immersed in this ant world it can see only its path and see the choice of direction in exploration it has chosen. This choice of path would need to be recognised instantly for the human to understand where it has chosen to go. This has been recognised in other installations such as work from Andrew Burrell, which allows the user choice in exploration by moving the head to look at certain areas that only shows them the area they have chosen to look at.

The grid area of the virtual reality

        The speeds at which ants move are far greater to the human, they are able to make their decision faster and decide what path and food sources to take. As our simulation installation is about understanding the ways of the worker ant, so too would the speed of our simulation needing to represent that of the ants, causing for the humans to have basic, set code decisions.

MaxMSP patch final

        The human are to be immersed inside a world that alters their senses to their perceived virtual reality it is about having the human act as a worker ant would. They will have the same thought in mind as an ant with only the choice of following other 3d pheromone paths to virtual food or creating their own path to find new food and to bring it back to the nest. Even with an ant following these simple instructions it is part of a larger plan of keeping the community supported and sustainable. The one ant is all it takes to search for that food and allow the colony to continue. Simulated versions of this allows for the audience to observe this understanding of how these insects have lasted.

References

Andrew Burrell. Unity/Max Motion Tracking. MP4, 2010. http://miscellanea.com/unitymax-motion-tracking/.

“Ants More Rational Than Humans?” Journal. ScienceDaily, July 24, 2009. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090724144524.htm.

Editor, By Roger Highfield, Science. “Like Ants, Humans Are Easily Led.” Telegraph.co.uk, December 12, 2007, sec. science-news. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3318321/Like-ants-humans-are-easily-led.html.

Jorina Fontelera. “How Fast Can an Ant Run?” Article. eHow, n.d. http://www.ehow.com/about_5365350_fast-can-ant-run.html.

Luke Houghton. “The Hall of Awesomeness » Why Are People Like Ants?” Article. The Hall of Awesomeness, January 3, 2008. http://lukehoughton.com/2008/01/03/why-are-people-like-ants/.

Simone Cacace, and Emiliano Cristiani. Myrmedrome - A Real Ant Colony Simulator, n.d. http://www.not-equal.eu/myrmedrome/main_en.html.

“Virtual Reality and Visualization.” Stanford School of Medicine, n.d. http://cisl.stanford.edu/what_is/sim_modalities/virtual_reality.html.