Brittany Ransom is an artist exploring how technology, nature and social creatures (like people, insects, and dogs) co-exist in today's world, and what we can learn from each other. By using insects, people and their pets, software, electronics and social media, she helps us all explore what it means to be a human in a multi-species world. In this Hands-On Ideas session, she shares her inspiration, how she goes about her work, what it's revealed, and how you can build on it to explore these ideas more deeply.

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BRITTANY RANSOM
Digital / Hybrid Media Artist + Professor
A part of the Hands-On Ideas series
February 21, 2013

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Brittany Ransom //
• Creates interactive installations, electronic art
objects, and site specific interventions that strive
to probe the line between human, animal, and
environmental relations while exploring emergent
technologies.
• Using technology as a material, my work
introduces concepts exploring the conflicted Relevant image here
relationships between our culture, the concern
for nature, and the way we interact with the
natural world.
• Explores the paradoxical bond between human,
nature, its inhabitants and the co-evolution
between the living and budding technological
innovation while questioning these technologies.
• Work invites the viewer to question how
technology can concurrently invent, destroy,
enshroud, and expose itself within our shared
environments.
• Interested in art as a collaborative research
based practice.

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@TweetRoach // 2012 - 2013 (Prototype 1)

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@TweetRoach // 2012 - 2013 (Prototype 1)
• Twitter Roach is in its first phase of
experimentation. Utilizing a RoboRoach/backpack
kit (produced and sold by Backyard Brains
http://www.backyardbrains.com), custom
processing, arduino programming and circuitry, it
allows people to log into their Twitter accounts to
cooperatively affect the movement of a cockroach
from anywhere in the world. The project made its
Relevant image (if needed)
debut at “Life, in some form,” an exhibition at the here
Chicago Artists Coalition on December 7th.
• Twitter Roach is designed to parse specific
commands received through mentions and
hashtags by stimulating one of its antennae—
essentially making the insect feel as if it touched
something. In other words, the cockroach is tricked
into turning left or right based on specific tweets.
The cockroach only wears the backpack for short
intervals and is only accessible to the Twitter
community during designated times. The program
is set up to only allow the cockroach to receive
tweets every 30 seconds.

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What inspired this work?
• I regularly work with insects in my artistic practice and
research, often as a metaphor for human life. The
availability of consumer based products, and so-called
“citizen-science,” emergence, and technology are
themes that I constantly explore. Through this piece,
I’m asking: will the cockroach eventually learn to
adapt to the stimulation and learn to ignore it? At what
point does its intelligence and ability take over? How
much does it take before we are all desensitized to
overstimulation? Most importantly what does it mean
that these materials are all open source and available
to us as consumers? Not only is it available but it is
becoming a regular trend, see article below. As we, as
human beings, grow more cyborgian and
interconnected through social media, this project
could help us participate in discovering the answer.
• “ We are heading towards a world in which anyone
with a little time, money and imagination can
commandeer an animal's brain. That's as good a
reason as any to start thinking about where we'd draw
our ethical lines. The animal cyborgs are here, and
we'll each have to decide whether we want a turn at
the controls. “
• - Frankenstein's Cat by Emily Anthes
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/17/race-to-create-

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Around We Go // 2012 - 2013 (Versions I & II)
Image here

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Around We Go // 2012 - 2013 (Versions I & II)
Image here

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Around We Go // 2012 - 2013 (DFW Versions I & II)
• Around We Go is an
experimental video and
projection series that records
termites following the lines of
the Dallas-Fort Worth major
highway systems.
• The termites follow the
drawing (made with a bic
pen) because of
pheromones. The
pheromones (smell) of the
ink mimics that of one that
the termites excrete to
communicate with one
another

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What inspired this work?
• Interested in the transition from moving
from Chicago to Dallas, I have become
obsessed with the amount of time I now
spend within my car commuting as
opposed to using public transit. This piece
is a somewhat tongue and cheek attempt
at observing our systematic tendencies as
humans (routines) and the way these also
exist in other species.
• This piece was projected on a building in
downtown Dallas (the central point of the
roads connecting) and it was also
projected on a log sourced from Dallas
that was moved to Chicago.

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#Tag // 2011 - ongoing
Image here

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#Tag // 2011 - ongoing
• The #tag project was developed from the
official release of Twitter’s 2010 Year in
Review. In Twitter’s year in review they
provide the top hash tags, trending topics,
celebrities, and re-tweets that were posted
over the course of the year. This review is
released annually. In this particular Relevant image (if needed)
installation, a commercially available product here
called the Magic Message Plant is able to
reveal a special message or image as the
plant sprouts (see attached
conceptualizations and drawings). In this
case, the Magic Plants have been specifically
ordered and designed to literally grow and
reveal one of the top five twitter hash tags of
2010. Thus the plant literally becomes a
participant in the twitter community, however,
physically and not virtually.

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What inspired this work?
Each seedling has been modified to become a plant that
reveals text on itself (a #tag) as it grows, thus it becomes a
physically tweeting plant. The lighting given to each plant is a
calculation dependent on the amount of tweets that incorporate
the specific hash tag that the seedling reveals. The more each
specific hash tag is posted, the more light that specific plant
with the corresponding hash tag is given.
#tag is meant for the viewer to consider the rapid rate at which
their tweets and hash tags can be shared online in comparison
with the time at which it takes for the magic plant to grow and
reveal its tweet. The overall plan for this installation is that the
seedlings are grown, reveal their own hash tag, and then are to
be planted into gardens of willing participants and art
institutions. #tag gardens will exist as markers of not only social
trends and topics but as a physical network (or garden) of
“tweeting” plants.

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PARTNERED: We Are All Pests // 2011
Image here

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PARTNERED: We Are All Pests // 2011
• Partnered: We Are All Pests is a sonic floor
installation that ultimately explores the
notions of the definition of the term pest and
the potential for accessing termites as
possible partners in the production of
renewable energy resources. This installation
proposes several conceptual tracts with the
main idea being the consideration of the
human species existing as the planet’s most
expansive pest through the hypothetical
perception of other species’ points of view.
• The second is the potential partnership with a
species that we consider a grotesque pest
(termites) to create inherently usable
hydrogen through naturally occurring
biological process within their tiny bodies. The
work explores several issues including
biomimicry, emergence, sustainability, what it
means to be an artist and researcher, the role
of citizen technologists, and uninvited
“collaborations” with other species to help
solve environmental dilemmas that we has
humans have developed and are solely
responsible for.

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What inspired this work?
• The installation is a 9 foot by 9 foot pine floor that
houses three termite enclosures. Each enclosure is
filled with sculpted paper forms that are primarily
made from human paper waste products
(newspapers, paper cups, plates, phonebooks,
copies of the artists electrical and gas bills, etc.) that
are structurally reminiscent of termite colony
construction. The termites are concurrently housed
in these enclosures and naturally eat away at the
paper forms. As the termites consume the paper
forms they ultimately digest them and naturally
release hydrogen gas thus taking human wastes Relevant image here
and transforming and recycling them into usable
materials. The pine floor is most importantly
surveyed by custom audio equipment. The viewer is
invited to stand, sit, or lay on the custom sonic floor.
• As they become immersed in the installation by
standing on or engaging with the piece, the sound of
the termites decomposing the paper waste forms is
amplified through digital vibrance resonators and
heard acoustically by the viewers in real time. The
floor literally becomes a sonic plane. Each termite
enclosure is built around two custom microphones
that allows the termites chewing to be made audible
to the human senses. Conceptually I am interested
in exploring various levels of decay through this
piece.

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HOST // 2011, Hyde Park Art Center
Image here

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HOST // 2011, Hyde Park Art Center
• HOST is a site specific 5 channel sight video
installation with a single live feed that ultimately
explores the notions of what it means for animals
and humans to act consciously and
unconsciously as both pests and hosts. In
conjunction with similar conceptual threads that
exist through my work, I am currently exploring Relevant image (if needed)
the idea of human beings existing as the planet’s here
most expansive and destructive form of pest;
• Inhabiting nearly every niche of the planet,
building into and ultimately altering the
environment, and disrupting the natural flow of
land, sucking it dry of non-renewable resources
and space, and polluting the air through
colonization of industry. The host, our planet,
acts as an organism that nourishes and supports
us, but does not benefit from our existence. The
human pest at this rate will extinct itself, running
out of clean air, water, space and resources from
its host to survive.

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What inspired this work?
• Conceptually the surveillance of these beetles serves as a
metaphorical place to contemplate our own existence,
reproduction, and participation in an existing pest / host
cycle. Be it consciously or unconsciously, the installation
ultimately calls to the notions of humans “eating” our own
holes through the planet and its given resources just as the
beetles live, eat, and die within their bean host. This piece
aims to brings to the front the grotesque nature of the
beetles cyclical relationship with their host and directly Relevant image here
references the overall ‘parasitic’ activities of the human
population existing directly outside and in the greater world.
The residential area across the street further exemplifies, in
a less direct way, the home also existing as a temporary
host for the human pest, built upon the skin of the earth in
most cases with little regard to its potential detrimental
effects. The installation at large intends to bring to the
surface our seemingly mundane routines as humans in an
effort to pose a larger conversation about the transformation,
consumption, and progression of our larger host, the planet.

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How Will We Build // 2011
Image here

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How Will We Build // 2011
• How Will We Build is an exploratory
ongoing process involving laser etching
selections of google maps of the city of
Chicago that are historically rooted in
famous travel designs, politics, and highly
populated areas. Termites are introduced
into a controlled environment and begin Relevant image (if needed)
to form their own city patterns by eating here
through the traditional human grid system
and creating or “building” their own
society against the grain of our own. I am
interested in investigating what human
forms the termites begin to build against
or with first in regard rectilinear forms or
organic forms created by the
topographical building view of humans.

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What inspired this work?
• The maps are surveyed by 24 hour
web cameras that capture an
image of the termites destruction
twice a day indefinitely.
• Inspired by the way that various
species build their societies.
Curious to know if termites would
eat against a human planned
urbanism / city design.

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Tracks Series // 2010 - ongoing
Image here

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Tracks Series // 2010 - ongoing
Relevant image (if needed)
here

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Tracks Series // 2010 - ongoing
This research-based project focuses on patterns and voyage
paths made by Bess beetles (Odontotaenius disjunctus),
classified under the insect order Coleptera. Bess beetles are
an imperative species that aid in the decomposition of waste
and dead vegetation, specifically within forests. They are an
insect commonly found in decaying logs from Texas to Florida
and as far north as Canada. Arguably similar to humans and
human societal systems, Bess beetles live in pairs within a
colony and are a semi-social insect. They pair for with one
other beetle and share housekeeping and larval care over 14-
16-month period of time. They are also able to communicate
through acoustic signals. Most importantly, they travel in and
outside of their ‘homes’, which are excavated galleries and
tunnels within rotting timber, to feed and to care for their
young. Their external travel (outside of the interior of their log
homes) and pattern making have thus become the basis of
this research-based series of photographic work.

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What inspired this work?
• The beetles were carefully introduced into various wooded
environments in Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin after they
were affixed with the LED ‘backpack’. Using a Nikon D700,
and remote shutter, the beetles was tracked both
individually and in groups via long exposure taken between
the hours of 10:00pm and 3:00am central standard time.
Each beetle (sometimes grouping of beetles) was
photographed for a minimum of 3 hours. Each beetle
wearing a different color LED ‘backpack’ denotes groups of
beetle movements. The current results of the Tracks Series
experiments and research are presented as digital
photographs.
• This project is conceptually rooted to the notions of
emergence, travel, and the revealing of formerly
unrecognized path making. Additionally, it furthers my
persistent desire to collaborate (albeit uninvitedly) with
insects. This began as a project where I was GPS tracking
myself and seeing if I had similar patterns to the beetles

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Subsequent Sight Series // 2008 - ongoing

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Subsequent Sight Series // 2008 - ongoing
• The Subsequent Sight series was realized
through the implementation of a wearable micro
camera and recording mechanism that was
placed on a dog. I felt this would help to capture
the perspective of the dog’s world and concerns.
This system supported a wireless high-resolution
recording unit and a covert micro camera,
weighing less than one pound. This lightweight
product was housed in a wearable vest
constructed almost entirely out of soft fleece and
nylon fabrics that allowed the dog to comfortably
carry out its daily functions.

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What inspired this work?
• This system aided in illuminating a first hand
account of the visual and auditory perspective of
dog’s lives when we are and are not present. In
order for one to understand the behavior of the
dog while the owner was not present several
hours of footage was taken while the owner and
their respective pet spent time together.
• The footage was collected from eight dogs
ranging in age, size, breed, gender, and
temperament. Their primary environment
(indoor, outdoor, or a combination of the two)
was also greatly considered. Relevant image here

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Only a Mother Could Love // 2008 - ongoing
Image here

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Only a Mother Could Love // 2008 - ongoing

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What inspired this work?
Relevant image here
• Only a Mother Could Love is a digitally manipulated photographic series that humorously
investigates the notion of pet owners taking on the facial characteristics of their animal
companions and vice versa.

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Post-Project
Now What?

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How approachable is the tech &
concept?
• The methods of material and code that I use in the
interactive works are all open source and consumable
commercial software and hardware.
• Think about the way changing technology situates our
species within the context of the natural world

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Questions and Answers