Category: Talks

Plexus talk

I gave a talk about Ant Ballet at the Bartlett School of Architecture‘s Plexus lecture series.

The entire event was recorded and is available here:

There was an excellent line-up of people who also presented, including:
Manja Van de Worp
Vera-Maria Glahn, director of field.io
Memo Akten – who is one of the best people on Twitter – gave a hilarious, thought-providing talk and run-through of his work to date

Plus the Bartlett’s very own Mollie Claypool as a special guest.

Thank you to Jose Sanchez for the invitation!

Material Matters Talk

I am giving a lecture on Thursday evening at the Bartlett School of Architecture as part of Ruairi Glynn and Xavier de Kestelier‘s Material Matters series.

Ant Ballet

An entymological adventure coaxing choreography from a company of obstinate insects

As humans, we are used to hierarchical control systems. Ants are different – they use pheromones to communicate and connect with each other, building complex networks from simple feedback loops.

Working with a team of chemical scientists and entomologists, Ant Ballet is an attempt to ‘hack’ the communication protocols of ants. Witness the trials and tribulations of the first attempts to create choreography, and intercontinental ant colony communication through the use of synthesised chemical compounds.

The Bartlett School of Architecture
Royal Ear Hospital
21 Capper Street
London WC1E 6AP

Thursday 17 January 2013, 7pm

Bio
Ollie Palmer is an artist and designer. Based at the Bartlett School of Architecture, he is a tutor in RC3 on the Graduate Architectural Design course. He has travelled around the world, hitchhiked across Iceland and taught IT skills in the heart of the Amazon. He is a collaborator with Open_H20 (developing open source oceanic technologies) and a Getty Images contributing photographer.
www.olliepalmer.com

Wilderness Festival

I have been invited to give a talk about dancing ants at the Natures Stage of Wilderness Festival, taking place between 10-12 August 2012 in beautiful Oxfordshire. I can’t wait to get there and take in a wealth of music, talks, food and country air!

More information and tickets available at the Wilderness Festival Website.

UPDATE: I’ll be on the Natures Stage on Saturday at 4pm. There are some other top-notch presentations there too, including Alan Moore and the New Dawn Traders.

Dorkbot 79

I’ll be talking about ants, machines and ballet at dorkbot 79 next week.

When

19:00-21:00, 28 March 2012

Where

MAT Lab, Room G2 Engineering Building, Queen Mary, University of London, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
Nearest tube: Stepney Green / Mile End
Walk up or down Mile End Road until you’re between Bancroft Road and The Queen’s Building. There’s a glass storefront with orange benches and people milling about looking studious. That’s the entrance. There should be a ‘dorkbot’ sign there.

Lineup

See you there!

Facebook event

DorkBot Cardiff

I’ll be talking about Ant Ballet at Dorkbot Cardiff as part of the Cardiff Design Festival on the 13th October 2011. Anybody with a curious sort of a nature is welcome – it’s free! If there’s any more incentive I can offer, it’s that they do a mean cocktail and probably the best selection of bottled beers in Cardydd.

More information about the roster of speakers available at the Dorkbot Cardiff website. The Facebook-inclined may also like to click here.

Talk – Camden School of Enlightenment

Ant Ballet

An entomological adventure coalescing choreography from (somewhat) obstinate insects

On the 13th September, I’ll be giving a 20 minute talk on the Ant Ballet – the madcap road trip to Barcelona to shoot a film about tiny ants following suspicious-looking trails. It will also be the first public outing of the Ant Ballet film. What’s more, it’s free, and the other people talking are pretty interesting too.
More details here

ZSL Teachers and Biodiversity Day

I gave a talk on ants and ballet at London Zoo‘s Teachers and Biodiversity Day in October 2010.

This involved a few conversations about pheromones, a demonstration of bug-tracking software I’ve built (using a very passive cockroach), and an adaptation of this experiment for classrooms.

Thanks to Seirian Sumner and Ruth Desforges for inviting me, the ZSL staff for being welcoming and accommodating, and all of the teachers for engaging and showing patience with a passive cockroach!

Tracing Mobility Symposium

I will be presenting Open_Sailing at the Tracing Mobility Symposium, held at Nottingham Contemporary on 15 May 2010. There is a very interesting line-up, inclusing:

  • Frank Abbott (UK)
  • Active Ingredient [Rachel Jacobs] (UK)
  • Robin Bhattacharya (UK/CH)
  • Heath Bunting (UK)
  • Simon Faithfull (UK/DE)
  • James Kennard (UK)
  • plan b [Sophia New & Daniel Belasco Rogers] (UK/DE)
  • Katarzyna Krakowiak (PL)
  • Krzysztof Nawratek (PL/UK)
  • Kate Rich (UK)
  • Michelle Teran (CA/DE)
  • Open_Sailing (Ollie Palmer) (UK)
  • Gordan Savicic (AT/NL)
  • Trebor Scholz (US); B
  • Basak Senova (TR)
  • Société Réaliste (HU/FR)
  • Joanna Warsza (PL)
  • Mushon Zer-Aviv (IL/US)

The entire symposium details are available on the Nottingham Contemporary and the Tracing Mobolity websites.

Talk at Art + Architecture

Ollie’s latest ant project will see its first public airing in a panel discussion at “Reclaiming Space”, hosted by Sinta Tantra and Art and Architecture, on the 29th April 2010.

Speakers

Zoe Schoenherr, Nick Brown, Marina Chang, Ollie Palmer, Sinta Tantra

Art & Architecture will travel to Camley Street Nature Park to see the work of a number of artists participating in the Reveal Festival. Join us for a guided tour of the new works by Nick Brown and Zoe Schoenherr, accompanied by the artists. Afterwards, we will return to the visitor centre and join the urban researcher Marina Chang and architectural designer Ollie Palmer for a panel discussion.

  • – Zoe Schoenherr is an artist who investigates strategies of site intervention, in the context of public space. Zoe explores the social and psychological impact of the designed environment, through work that blurs the traditional boundaries of painting, sculpture and architecture.
  • – Marina Chang is coordinator of UCL Food Junctions, a festival within a festival that brings together people from different disciplines and cultures and challenges us to rethink our relationship with food (24th, 25th & 28th April + 1st-2nd May.)
  • www.food-junctions.org.uk
  • – Nick Brown has a history of working in community-based, natural settings and in the public realm. His central interest is the relationship between the artist and the site and the production of work that engages the viewer with that site.
  • – Ollie Palmer is a multi disciplinary designer. He is director of Hoog Design and collaborator with Open_Sailing. Ollie will present his current project, an artwork that investigates of the social behavior of ants.
  • Sinta Tantra is an artist and independent curator. Sinta curated the Camley Street Project in 2008: a sculpture by Nick Hornby, inspired by Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle. She is currently exhibiting at the Stanley Picker Gallery.

Entrance: £4 Members – £2 Students (includes a glass of wine)
Nearest Tube: Kings Cross
Advance booking: info@artandarchitecture.co.uk / tel 07950 933391
For more information, click here