Casting a Fire Ant Colony with Molten Aluminum (Cast #043)

Comment

Comment by Michael Dubby on August 13, 2026 at 12:01pm

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Comment by Michael Dubby on August 13, 2026 at 5:46am

Thanks

Comment by Arthur Mamou-Mani on December 13, 2013 at 2:56pm

Seeing their social structure alive is also really interesting:

Comment by taz on December 13, 2013 at 1:24pm

...but think of how it would look on your coffee table!

This has also been done for termite mounds, but using plaster (probably because they are rather tall and the prospect of going up and down a ladder with molten aluminium seems a bit dicey and $$).  YouTubes are available.

http://www.esf.edu/efb/turner/termitePages/termiteStruct.html

McNeel Comment by Luis Fraguada on December 13, 2013 at 11:44am

In this case, I find it tough to call this science, though I find a lot of art to be scientific, and a lot of science to have artistic qualities.  Scientific + Art process would have been to use scanning (something that could see the density of the material beneath the surface), and then perhaps use some sort of fabrication technique, 3d printed titanium maybe, to show us a more accurate representation of this colony.  As it is, the metal not only destroys the ants, it also destroys the ant colony, and destroys any of the spatial qualities (the mound sinks), hence, it is the abstraction of the colony, and not the colony itself.

All that being said, pouring molten metal down a hole is pretty sweet.

Comment by Sylvain Usai on December 13, 2013 at 11:34am

Some work by EZCT : http://thibaultschwartz.com/?g1_work=archilab-2013-w-ezctfrac-centr...

Comment by RWNB on December 13, 2013 at 10:36am

basically you're right, as always.

Art is pain.

McNeel Comment by David Rutten on December 13, 2013 at 10:18am

but by the way, what does that have to do with art?
science seems to me more appropriate.

I know. Luis used the word 'sculpture' to describe the outcome which is an arty rather than a sciency term. 

Comment by RWNB on December 13, 2013 at 7:10am

"Art is pain".

with the formulation I do not agree.

this particular pain is not felt by the artist.
in this case, art would be perhaps rather mass murder. ;)

but by the way, what does that have to do with art?
science seems to me more appropriate.

McNeel Comment by David Rutten on December 13, 2013 at 5:36am

Seems like an awful lot of ants to kill for this 'sculpture.'

Art is pain.

Someone else's ideally.

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