Untitled (superorganism)

“Untitled (Superorganism)” was a video installation commissioned for ‘Anthropocene Monument’, an exhibition curated by by Bruno Latour and Bronislaw Szerszynski at Les Abattoirs Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Toulouse (3/10 2014 - 4/1 2015). The exhibition was a precursor to the determinations of the Anthropocene Working Group and The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), to examine evidence of a new geological epoch in which geologically significant conditions and processes have been profoundly altered by human activities. Untitled (Superorganism) simulated the the event of an Ant Mill, a phenomenon observed in some ants, where hundreds of thousands of ants walk in a circle, a ceremonial procession, until overcome by exhaustion and, eventually, death. This phenomenon is a side effect of the self-organizing structure of ant colonies, related to a flaw in the ingenious system of pheromones that govern the complex social behaviours and hierarchy of the colony. Using research into feeding and pheromone laying behaviour, this work simulated the behaviour of an ant colony. Digital simulations were composited into live video footage of the museum space and exhibited in the context of the physical aftermath of an actual ant mill having taken place in the museum.