the world of ollie palmer

Here’s the presentation I gave in Copenhagen last week regarding my Physical Virus project. The project is an architectural conversation about invasive species; the first step is to create a ballet performance using ants, using a series of modified printers to print pheromones and influence ant behaviour. This presentation shows briefly the main stages involved in the execution of the project, a few influences, and some videos pilfered from various places.

You can also see the first batch of ants on flickr here.

Perhaps we’re too cheap to send real cards. Or maybe we’re freaking eco-warriors, saving on trees.

Open_Sailing is pleased to announce that our own dear Cesar Harada has been made a TED Research Fellow. This means that Open_Sailing will be one of the many glorious ideas being bandied around Long Beach between February 9-13 2010.

Needless to say, the whole team is excited – our large open source project will be open to a truly global audience. The more, the merrier!

Official press release

Oh, and while I’m on the subject, we were interviewed for El Pais, the Spanish national newspaper the other day whilst running a workshop at the CCCB in Barcelona. Click here to see the article – scroll down for English.

Happy sailing!

I made my own addition to my phone. Why use a fixed camera when you can simply add one of these beauties?

Posted via email from Unit 14

As part of another project (as-yet-unblogged), I’ve been looking at RFID tags – and more specifically, how they can be used within robotic and entomological systems. The wasp below is sporting an RFID tag that costs €3 as part of a study of wasp movements (image credits: ZSL – for more on that, click here…). RFID is becoming an everyday commodity…

One of the most commonly accepted RFID systems in operation is the Oyster card. I put mine into a glass full of nail varnish in order to remove the chip inside.

After a few hours, the adhesive holding the components together was degraded to such an extent that the whole thing was a floppy mess, ready to be peeled apart.



This is version 2.6 of the Oyster card – previous versions contained copper wire, but this one uses conductive ink as the arial. The flexible centre is now ready for embedding into anything – e.g. a jacket sleeve – ready for use. The pencil points towards the “ID” part, which contains the chip’s all-important frequency.

Good news – Ollie’s photography is now available to license on gettyimages.com. The “by olliepalmer.com” library will grow over time!

It is a privilege to be invited to be part of one of the world’s great photo-libraries. Now a global audience is able to buy photographs that I have taken from around the world to use and re-interpret creatively. It’s fantastic to know that your work could be helping others create.

If you like my photography, click here to see more on my website (hideously unorganised), or here to see more on my Flickr stream (along with lots of other, less pretty pictures).

I am currently in the research phase for a new project in Unit 14. Whilst I’m not in a position to show off any fancy drawings, diagrams or bits of circuitry yet, I thought perhaps a list of the influences that are working their way into this subject might give a preview of where it may go…

The following statement is true.
The previous sentence is false.

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This week, the AVATAR students at the Bartlett School of Architecture have been working under the guidance of visiting lecturer Perry Kulper (University of Michigan). Perry’s work investigates the potential of methodology in the working process, aiming not to create buildings, but rather to progress the cultural effectiveness and agency of architecture. Whilst working in the field of architecture and architectural education, he often eliminates buildings as an outcome, and has produced hundreds of provocative, rich and intensively laboured drawings. Spending four days under his tuition was a privilege, and the general consensus from the year group is overwhelmingly positive.
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OK, so I’ve been fairly lax with blog entries recently. That, dear readers, is not due to a lack of excitement – perish the thought! – but a general lack of time to document it all.

I will soon be developing a series of projects at the Bartlett School of Architecture as part of an Masters in Architectural Design AVATAR, studying directly under some of the people who have heavily influenced my past work. To say that I am very excited would be an understatement…

More good news from Open_Sailing HQ!

Thanks to the wonderful work of Nadine, we’ve won a €10,000 book prize to develop Lab 07: Ocean_Cookbook. We’re planning to develop nutritional methodologies for working with oceanic and freshwater food sources so that we can create a delicious food supply at sea, which we’re going to publish in a book.