Gallery: These Finger Paintings Are Actually Complex Ant Pathways
Illustration: Adriana Ramić01the-return-trip-is-never-the-same-03
The Return Trip is Never the Same is an art project that explores both insect behavior and how technology affects human language.
Illustration: Adriana Ramić02the-return-trip-is-never-the-same-installation-view-07
While at Google’s Cultural Institute in Paris, for their artist residency, Adriana Ramić began meeting with etymology enthusiasts at the local Museum of Natural History.
Illustration: Adriana Ramić03the-return-trip-is-never-the-same-04
There she met a scientist, who gave her a copy of a book with no text, just pages of drawings of ant movement patterns by Victor Cornetz, a French topographer and a naturalist.
Illustration: Adriana Ramić04the-return-trip-is-never-the-same-05
Ramić traced those ant patterns onto an Android Swype keyboard.
Illustration: Adriana Ramić05the-return-trip-is-never-the-same-06
Because Swype uses algorithms and a language model to interpret fingertip swipes into text, this generated blocks of nonsensical sentences.
Illustration: Adriana Ramić06the-return-trip-is-never-the-same-07
Sample text is seen here: "sadness golf dry please drafting."
Illustration: Adriana Ramić07nobody-messages-from-nautilus-03
Ramic re-interpreted the ant pathways into textured strokes that look like finger paints.
Illustration: Adriana Ramić08the-return-trip-is-never-the-same-08
She repeated this technique with 190 of Cornetz’s drawings, in all 71 languages supported by Swype, and wound up with 82 pages in her art e-book.
Illustration: Adriana Ramić09the-return-trip-is-never-the-same-nobody-message-from-nautilus-installation-view
“It’s about tracking how aunts move, and how Swype is tracking me," Ramić says.
