Paper short abstract:

This paper explores relations between actor-network theory (ANT) and the bio-art project Symbiosity of Creation. Consisting of ant colonies kept in “incubators”, the project challenges viewers (and scholars) to consider the implications of employing ANT (and ants) as part of artistic practices.

Paper long abstract:

The project Symbiosity of Creation (sometimes exhibited as ANTS' WAY) was initiated in 2012 by Polish artist Jarosław Czarnecki aka. Elvin Flamingo and is expected to last until ca. 2034. The project consists of two ant colonies kept in separate "incubators" built by the artist. Seeking inspiration in various fields such as bio-art, contextual art, relational aesthetics, social performance and social theory (including actor-network theory), the artist (who is also a DIY filmmaker) wanted "to create a 'film' that lives its own life, participating, interactive, and symbiotic with me."

Actor-network theory (ANT) builds on metaphors of collective making and socio-material composition of common worlds. The allusion to ant communities (probably) is coincidental and rarely explored in greater detail. Nevertheless, ANT invites us to understand society as an ongoing achievement being gradually composed by organisms and materials, much in the same way that we see ant colonies under construction in Elvin Flamingo's art project. Like human societies, ant colonies involve myriads of actors working together on the joint composition of common worlds.

Flamingo's bio-art project extends ANT into artistic practice, asking us to probe similarities/differences between the collective making of human societies, ant colonies, and artworks, respectively. Viewers of Symbiosity of Creation are invited to see actions that are normally attributed to human societies, such as communication, farming, innovation, etc., reflected in the activities of ants. STS and art scholars for their part are invited to consider the extent to which ANT can and ought to be accomplished by non-academic means.