Five Years Of An Ant Colony Stuck In A Scanner

François Vautier built an ant farm into a scanner, then he proceeded to scan the farm every day for five years. The ensuing clip? Just as wonderful as you’d imagine, though I wish I could see it uncompressed. [Thanks OblivionVII!]

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(5 Comments)
  • [–]

    plenty more where that came from

    Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 8:49 AM

    oddly enough – while I appreciate it’s stop-motion, I didn’t see a single ant in the whole video ?! It was mor elike a composit heap with some small wormy/maggots appearing occasionally.

    • [–]

      Kif

      Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 12:01 AM

      I think the wormy maggots you’re referring to are seeds sprouting that have been dragged into the nest.

  • [–]

    Troy MacDonald

    Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 10:58 AM

    Wow, thats pretty incredible. Still not sure how he did it (inside the scanner, would it have destroyed it, rendering it useless, and the image scanner itself have to be upside-down? Pretty cool though

    • [–]

      Kif

      Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 12:07 AM

      Ants aren’t really very invasive, except for space. They only bother us because they feed on the same things we do. If you seal the bottom of the scanner, leaving the lid down to reduce light, I don’t see how this wouldn’t work. They won’t touch wiring. If you run the scanner regularly, they’ll soon figure out where the hot spots are (if any, being once a day). Ants are specialists in distributing heat and airconditioning.

  • [–]

    Simon Reidy

    Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 2:49 PM

    Awesome. Good choice of music too (Infected Mushroom?). Actually reminded me of something by Trent Reznor or David Fincher..

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