The Foragers

The Foragers by Heather Barnett working with a thousand pavement ants A collaboration with The Swarm Lab An experimental film exploring a critical mass of foraging ants as an image-making system, working with the pavement ant, Tetramorium tsushimae. Combining time-lapse photography and image processing the film tracks the pheromone communications between multiple ants as they investigate a new territory, identify sources of food and leave chemical signals for others to follow. The film was made in collaboration with The Swarm Lab during an artist residency in 2016, inspired by a piece of scientific research produced by Simon Garnier et al, “Individual rules for trail pattern formation in Argentine ants (Linepithema humile)“.