Ant Farm (group)

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This article is about a group of architects. For other uses, see Ant farm (disambiguation)

Ant Farm was a group of architects who produced experimental works on the "fringe of architecture" during the period 1968-1978. They documented their work with video, and were influential early video artists. Ant Farm could be regarded today as a very effective mix between Archigram, the Rolling Stones and The Yes Men. Ant Farm embraced the latest technologies at the same time as they hit American culture on the head with their social and political comments and their highly critical (up to being in some cases destructive) approach to mass media.[1] The group's works include:

  • Media Burn (1975). In which a glorified cadillac was driven through a wall of burning televisions. This piece plays with the notion of a pseudo-event.
  • Cadillac Ranch, in which several cadillac automobiles were half-buried off Interstate 40 near Amarillo, Texas.
  • House of the Century (with Texas and New Mexico architect Richard Jost)
  • Inflatocookbook
  • The Eternal Frame (1975), a collaboration with T.R. Uthco in which actors reenacted the John F. Kennedy Assassination in Dealey Plaza and documented it on video.
  • Citizen's Time Capsule (1975) at Artpark, Lewiston, N.Y.
  • The exhibition, Ant Farm 1968-1978, was mounted by the Berkeley Art Museum in 2004 and toured to six other museums.
  • The Media Van was the customized van they traveled in and more recently has been turned into a time capsule.

[edit] Media Van

The Media Van was a Chevrolet van customized into a mobile studio that the art group Ant Farm used to share images and information with the public while they were on the road giving talks and organizing public happenings. A bubble skylight was also installed to be used for videotaping road side scenery. The Media van was also used to transport their equipment to build their ICE 9 inflatables and they were also able to harness the energy from the vans motor to blow up the structures.

Recently Chip Lord , Curtis Schreier, and Bruce Tomb took the original Media Van now called Media Van V.08 was part of an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) titled “The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now”[2][3]. For this exhibition the Media Van has been converted into a time capsule. In this van there are hook ups for several different types of devices, what will happen is people will hook up their electronic devices (i.e. cell phones, ipods, video cameras, digital cameras) and the van will upload images videos and songs to the hard drive to be stored for latter viewing. The Media Van was sealed on January 29, 2009 and will not be opened again until 2030; once it's unsealed the contents will be open to the public to view what has been stored on the vans hard drive.


[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ant Farm retrospective in Sevilla - we make money not art
  2. ^ ANT FARM Media Van v.08 (Time Capsule)
  3. ^ Chip Lord , Curtis Schreier, and Bruce Tomb on the Ant Farm Media Van v.08 (Time Capsule)

[edit] External links

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