Moving sculpture is steered by flies

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on March 28th, 2008

Moving sculpture is steered by flies
This strange looking contraption is a battery powered vehicle. It putters around a New York art gallery looking like…art. What’s interesting about it is the driver or drivers. It’s course is directed and steered entirely by flies. The plastic bubble is filled with large houseflies, and the food and water that nourishes them. That’s right, the enslavement of flies has begun.

The lights that you see shining on the flies keep them warm and as the flies do their thing, the reflections that the lights make on the top of the bubble change. Sensors send the changing light data to a controller that activates the motor and steers the machine accordingly. It’s the brainchild of David Bowen, an artist who has also created machines that track flies’ movements and make huge drawings. Pretty cool. I wonder what else they can power.

[We Make Money Not Art] VIA [Dvice]

TAGS: , , , , ,

Subscribe to the SlipperyBrick.com content feed through RSS Subscribe to feed via email.


RELATED ARTICLES:
Beer Barrel R2-D2 Steampunk sculpture
Custom Mii sculptures now available for $79
Pac-Man Skeleton
SKDubs Gold boombox looks beautiful & badass

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>




Other blogs from the Topic Soup Network that you might like:

PopTherapy.com - A therapeutic guide to popular culture

WeathyReader.com - Where reading pays off.

HealthyReader.com web site

Botropolis.com web site