###Collaborating with Insects / Insects Inquiry <video src="insects1500.mp4" muted autoplay loop></video> --- ###Collaborating with Insects / Insects Inquiry   ####Initial Concern *[...] cultural and technical phenomena providing a fertile soil, a good soup, for the development of insects, bacteria, germs, or even particles. The industrial age defined as the age of insects [...]* <br><br>— Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, "A Thousand Plateaus" (1980)   *The research, the first global review of its kind, looked at 73 historical reports on insect declines around the world and found the total mass of all insects on the planets is decreasing by 2.5% per year.* <br><br>— Aylin Woodward, "Last year, 40% of honey-bee colonies in the US died" in *Business Insider* (2019) --- ###Collaborating with Insects / Insects Inquiry   ####References: Insects and Media / Robotics --- ###Collaborating with Insects / Insects Inquiry   ####Sven Bergelt: Noise (2012) Ants are moving on a white backround. In the beginning of the video the ants are very agile. Later their movement slackens. The so called “Ant- War” - the snow on the TV - is transfered into living protagonists. But in difference to the TV-Ants the real ones did not move constantly. The real ants almost stopped moving after they realized that there is no possibility to get out of the frame. Because ants communicate with scents. They tell each other that it is pointless to try to get out. In the mediated representation the ants turn into teeming agents that activate a tight feeling. <img src="noise_02.jpg" alt="" class="tiny-img"> <img src="noise_01.jpg" alt="" class="tiny-img"> --- ###Collaborating with Insects / Insects Inquiry   ####Backyard Brains: Roboroach (2013) <img src="roboroach.jpg" alt="" class="tiny-img"> <img src="roboroach2.png" alt="" class="tiny-img"> --- ###Collaborating with Insects / Insects Inquiry   ####InsectLab: Ranzani Flower Beetle (450$) <img src="InsectLab.jpg" alt="" class="medium-img"> --- ###Collaborating with Insects / Insects Inquiry   ####Research questions How does light effect insects? How can we engage ("collaborate") non-invasively with insects?   ####Side questions How do we avoid a mechanistic rendering of insects? (Protagonists instead of machines) How does a project look like that is designed around considerations of insect agency? --- ###Collaborating with Insects / Insects Inquiry: Project 1 - Insect Swarm Choreography <video src="swarm.mp4" muted autoplay loop></video> --- ###Collaborating with Insects / Insects Inquiry: Project 2 - Insect-induced Video Manipulation <video src="opencv1.mp4" muted autoplay loop></video>