Comments on: Ants on a scanner: 5-year video timelapse

By: Shelby Davis

Shelby Davis — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah I’m confused on the conceptual side too. We seem to see ants under the glass (we over it, them on the underside), see a light passing back and forth behind both the ants and the glass–so he’s really taking photos of his scanner while he changes the position of the scanner bulb?

However he does it, I love the concept. It’s got this whole eco-reclamation post-apocalyptic vibe. Like those books and documentaries that try to project what would last and how it would decay if mankind were wiped out, but on a really tiny scale.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have no idea what the hell I just saw. How come the numbers of the inside of the scanner keep changing? Is that even possible?

By: Darren Garrison

Darren Garrison — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have had it with these motherfucking ants in this motherfucking scanner!

By: codeman38

codeman38 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks, ants.

Thants.

(Someone had to say it…)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

5 years of ant colonization and it still works?

By: jeligula

jeligula — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have to agree with the very first comment. Time lapse doesn’t mean much when the lens is moving. A static shot would have been better, although I do realize that what he did was harder.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nice to hear some Infected Mushroom music being used.

By: alberta

alberta — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well I enjoyed it. Pan/zoom works well with the music.

By: imag

imag — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I may be completely off base here, but my guess is that the artist has the full images of each day at high resolution. My assumption is that the panning and zooming was done in AfterEffects to make the video more interesting, not at the original time of shooting.

I actually thought the panning and zooming worked, because it allowed you to see more detail in a particular area, and selected areas of growth and change. Showing the whole thing for the whole time would have just showed a rapidly moving flurry of dirt. I also thought the panning and zooming brought a level of abstraction to the thing, where it’s not even clear what kind of technological thing one is looking at.

Anyway, *I* thought it was cool. Thanks, person who scanned a scanner every day for 5 years!

By: elfspice

elfspice — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

ya i thought that was IM. it would be heaps cooler in HD without the panning.

By: ikoino

ikoino — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Have to agree that the panning doesn’t enhance this piece. However, FranÃ§ois Vautier applies panning works to mezmersing effect in his Blade Runner piece, which lays out 167,819 frames in a 60,000×60,000 grid. The pan scans the surface and adjusts speed to sync with in with frame advance. Stunning!

By: Astragali

Astragali — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Not that it counts for much, but I was intrigued by the presence of (what appeared to be) flash-framed Magnetic Poetry tiles.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is industrial-techno-club-wall ready!

By: Rick.

Rick. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I liked the panning. Probably would have stopped watching after 30 seconds if there wasn’t something else happening.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It looks like a CSI intro show. Good job!

By: doplgangr

doplgangr — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

i watched it without sound and imagined it as a background for a Nine Inch Nails video…

By: GraemeM

GraemeM — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Fantastic video, but #2, think about it, one pic a week there no way you can tell what each ant is doing. You are watching the effects n the colony of all the ants.

Brilliant idea, can this be done elsewhere; a termite mound, a city skyscape, the cheese in my fridge.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@Anon â€¢ #5
The numbers are a timecode for each photo (scantz200607081949).

It’s kind of neat to see it shifting back and fourth as the focus shifts forward and backward in time to different points of interest.

By: BarelyFitz

BarelyFitz — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Christ, what an ant hole.

By: hdon

hdon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi I’m a nerd and I can’t appreciate the rich — dare I say… tactile — visual experience that has been created. I want this video to be about ants and tunnels and stuff. I know what’s better than the artist because I’m smarter than anyone else I know.

By: Ryanwoofs

Ryanwoofs — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It was hard to make out everything until I put it full screen. Then it was awesome.

I thought “documentary” when I read the description, but the editing moves more towards “art” in my mind.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franks – Infected Mushroom

By: Rossy

Rossy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ugh, I can’t seem to get the video to work on my iPhone. It’s really too bad, I was looking forward to seeing something someone else made that I never have and complaining about it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m not sure if the light in a scanner is offset from the scanning elements enough to get around reflection problems it would cause, but could he have used a mirror facedown on the bed of the scanner?

By: rk

rk — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@hdon: That’s pretty fair. I blame the person who titled the post here for that reaction, however. As a visual arts project, I think it’s amazing… but a “video timelapse” usually means something different to many people. File under “expectations management”, perhaps?

It reminded me of moments from the Indigo Girls video for “Touch Me Fall”, which is a great song and a wild video.

By: duggo42

duggo42 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, “Timelapse Music Video” would have been a better title, I think. This isn’t what I was expecting to see when I clicked on the link, but it was still really cool, creative work.

By: apoxia

apoxia — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well I like the video and found it far more interesting than a simple time-lapse. That would have been extremely boring.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You sir, have won.

By: bombertherigpig

bombertherigpig — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I see no ants. But it is cool.

By: Art

Art — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I can’t correlate the whole ‘art colony in a scanner’ thing with the ensuing images and I echo Shelby Davis’s previous questions.

However, the images are absolutely gorgeous and that alone makes this video a stand-out artistic achievement.