Little Things that Run the World – launch of a 9 week project

Little Things that Run the World, a project by the North Western Regional Science Hub, was launched last Saturday 16th August, at NERAM.

An ‘art meets science’ event, the nine week event that started during National Science Week, offers opportunities to get up close and personal with ants in their giant nest. But not the type of ants you might imagine. These ants are made of spoons, toothpicks, felt balls and pipe cleaners. They are brilliant colours and all manner of shapes and sizes. And they’re multiplying!  Visitors to the New England Regional Art Museum can help grow this creative colony, and can also add tiny black ants to trails around the foyer of the gallery.

School of Ants is up next, with an ANTBLITZ scheduled for the weekend of the 20-21 September at the Armidale Tree Group. Using ants as simple bioindicators of ecosystem health and recovery, we’ve got scheduled pitfall trapping, litter sampling and hand collections of ants in several different stages of revegetation at the Tree Group site. We’re interested in how the resident ant communities of the various habitats change over time, and if it might indicate a merging of management regimes to an overall more similar and healthy site.

Click here for the weekend schedule to see where you might want to be involved.

But there’s more in store for the ant project. NERAM’s ArtPlay day on the 19th of October will consist of sculpting a giant ant in the courtyard of the gallery!  Ants will be in the region, large and small, in perpetuity…..

We’re looking forward to the AntBlitz and will keep you posted on results!