Our group first began with Elsa’s original idea of creating the alphabet using jelly or another sticky substance with bugs. The concept was that we would be creating ant traps in the shape of letters so that the ants would get stuck in the shape of letterforms. We wanted to use a substance that was clear so that the only thing you could see were the ants. After many trial and errors, we realized that we couldn’t find a clear substance that attracted many bugs. We tried peanut butter, applesauce, jam, sugar water and honey but these substances did not attract many bugs. However, looking back on the situation now, I think the location/environment also had a big impact on how many ants appeared.
We decided to abandon the substance idea and move on to fruit. We thought we could create the alphabet out of fruit and have the same process which is leave them outside and wait for the fruit to attract the bugs. We all choose 5-6 letters each and made them out of various types of fruit. I was assigned “a”, “h”, “k”, “o”, “t”, and “v”. I made the “a” out of an apple using a slice of it and a thin peeling of its skin. The “h”, “k” and “t” were made out of bananas. I peeled and cut them in a few different ways. To make the “o” I used an orange and cut it down the middle. Finally, for the “v” I cut a strawberry in half and cut out a little triangle at the top to create the “v”. I took photos of them and left them over night to see what would happen in the morning. What I ended up finding was pretty funny. The “a” had disappeared, which I assume was eaten by a bunny. The “v” had a giant bite out of it and was moved off of the sheet of paper that it had been laying on. The “h”, “k”, and “t” had gone very brown and did not attract any bugs. Finally, the “o” was covered in a few fruit flies but every time I tried to take a photo they flew off.
Everyone else had pretty similar results with the fruit so I decided to give honey one last try because there were a lot of ants in my front yard. I was visiting family in Kingston this past weekend at my very suburban home, filled with lots of wild life including lots of bunnies, bees and ants so it was the perfect place to create the letters! I first laid down a white sheet of paper so everything would have the same background. I then put wax paper on top to prevent the honey from dripping through the paper. Using a knife I slowly put down the letters into bubbly forms.
This finally attempt was a success. I ended up putting down all of the letters and took before, during and after photos of them. I think it’s interesting to note that there were a few letters that the ants all flocked to. The only major problem I ran into during this process was that the honey liquefies when outside in the sun so it changed shape over time. I had to redo a few letters that had a lot of ants on them because they had turned into ant and honey blobs. Starting from scratch again only brought out a few ants to each letter which led our group to do a little bit of photoshopping.
Together we chose the photos we liked the best and split up them up equally for editing. Some of the backgrounds needed to be touched up as well as the addition of a few ants. I suggested calling our project “alphabite” because the ants and other bugs are taking a bite out of the honey. Layout wise, we felt that having the letters laid out in the classic order was better than having an anagram unrelated to our idea.
Overall, I am happy that our group ran into problems along the way because we were able to explore our idea more thoroughly. At each stage we were able to create different shapes for the letters. The shape and form I thought was most interesting/appealing were made from the honey so I’m glad this is where it finally landed!
A1 Alphabet
Alphabite
Our group first began with Elsa’s original idea of creating the alphabet using jelly or another sticky substance with bugs. The concept was that we would be creating ant traps in the shape of letters so that the ants would get stuck in the shape of letterforms. We wanted to use a substance that was clear so that the only thing you could see were the ants. After many trial and errors, we realized that we couldn’t find a clear substance that attracted many bugs. We tried peanut butter, applesauce, jam, sugar water and honey but these substances did not attract many bugs. However, looking back on the situation now, I think the location/environment also had a big impact on how many ants appeared.
We decided to abandon the substance idea and move on to fruit. We thought we could create the alphabet out of fruit and have the same process which is leave them outside and wait for the fruit to attract the bugs. We all choose 5-6 letters each and made them out of various types of fruit. I was assigned “a”, “h”, “k”, “o”, “t”, and “v”. I made the “a” out of an apple using a slice of it and a thin peeling of its skin. The “h”, “k” and “t” were made out of bananas. I peeled and cut them in a few different ways. To make the “o” I used an orange and cut it down the middle. Finally, for the “v” I cut a strawberry in half and cut out a little triangle at the top to create the “v”. I took photos of them and left them over night to see what would happen in the morning. What I ended up finding was pretty funny. The “a” had disappeared, which I assume was eaten by a bunny. The “v” had a giant bite out of it and was moved off of the sheet of paper that it had been laying on. The “h”, “k”, and “t” had gone very brown and did not attract any bugs. Finally, the “o” was covered in a few fruit flies but every time I tried to take a photo they flew off.
Everyone else had pretty similar results with the fruit so I decided to give honey one last try because there were a lot of ants in my front yard. I was visiting family in Kingston this past weekend at my very suburban home, filled with lots of wild life including lots of bunnies, bees and ants so it was the perfect place to create the letters! I first laid down a white sheet of paper so everything would have the same background. I then put wax paper on top to prevent the honey from dripping through the paper. Using a knife I slowly put down the letters into bubbly forms.
This finally attempt was a success. I ended up putting down all of the letters and took before, during and after photos of them. I think it’s interesting to note that there were a few letters that the ants all flocked to. The only major problem I ran into during this process was that the honey liquefies when outside in the sun so it changed shape over time. I had to redo a few letters that had a lot of ants on them because they had turned into ant and honey blobs. Starting from scratch again only brought out a few ants to each letter which led our group to do a little bit of photoshopping.
Together we chose the photos we liked the best and split up them up equally for editing. Some of the backgrounds needed to be touched up as well as the addition of a few ants. I suggested calling our project “alphabite” because the ants and other bugs are taking a bite out of the honey. Layout wise, we felt that having the letters laid out in the classic order was better than having an anagram unrelated to our idea.
Overall, I am happy that our group ran into problems along the way because we were able to explore our idea more thoroughly. At each stage we were able to create different shapes for the letters. The shape and form I thought was most interesting/appealing were made from the honey so I’m glad this is where it finally landed!