LB°24 — Participants
Carol Lafayette (b. 1957, Texas, USA) is an artist based in the US.
Carol LaFayette uses digital technology to augment experiences of nature and the environment. Her artwork is represented in collections at the Museum of Modern Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in the USA. The atta project maps tunnels and chambers in a vast leafcutting ant colony (Atta Texana). To create the image, an 8x8-meter Ground Penetrating Radar scan was translated into a 3D model. One of Texas's smallestnativesis alsoone of its largest:
Atta Texana harvests tree leaves to farm a fungus in vast, underground cavities that can spread over more than an acre of land and reach to great depths, with over a million ants in residence. Excavated leafcutting nests have proven large enough to contain a 3-story house. Scientists believe the ants' symbiotic relationship with the fungus could lead to discoveries in medicine and sustainable agriculture. This project is realized in cooperation with Dr. Frederic I. Parke, Professor, Department of Visualization, Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Utah. One of Dr. Parke's research areas has been the development and application of low-cost interactive immersive visualization systems.
Interactive immersive visualization system