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DAVID BOWEN

fly blimps

source: dwbowen

This installation consists of a series of 3 to 5 autonomous helium filled blimps whose movements are controlled by small collectives of houseflies. The flies are essentially the brain of each of the devices, determining how they interact and respond to the space as well as the other devices. Up to 50 houseflies live within the chambers attached to each blimp unit. These chambers contain food, water and allow the light needed to keep the flies alive and flourishing. The chambers also contain sensors that detect the changing light patterns produced by the movements of the flies. In real-time, the sensors send this information to an on-board micro-controller. This controller activates the motors connected to the propellers that direct the devices based on the actions of the flies. The floating, wandering blimps are separate but intersecting community vehicles. The flies exist in their own self-contained and self-sustaining worlds, collectively creating an amplified and exaggerated expression of group behavior.
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source: switched

For the art.tech group exhibition artist David Bowen contributed a dynamic work called ‘Fly Blimps’ — a trio of small, helium-filled dirigibles controlled by those pesky members of the order diptera. Sensors are embedded inside the flies’ small chambers, each of which contains food, water and light. As the swarm, which includes up to 50 houseflies, moves around the chamber, the sensors relay the changes in light to a micro-controller attached to the blimp, activating or slowing propellers. “The flies are essentially the brain of each of the devices, determining how they interact and respond to the space and the other devices,” Bowen writes on his site.

Bowen’s work frequently blends elements of the natural world with technology and robotics; we were highly impressed by his ‘Growth Modeling Device’ and ‘Growth Rendering Device’ which used inkjet and 3-D printers to track the development of plants. And he has worked with flies before, in both ‘Swarm’ and ‘Fly Drawing Device,’ handing control of those gadgets over to the unpredictable insects, as well.
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source: eriazoblogspot

David Bowen en el Art.tech festival en San Francisco, California, ha montado una obra titulada “Fly blimps”, (algo así como “dirigibles de moscas”), bastante novedosa por decir lo menos.

Se trata de unos pequeños globos inflados con helio que portan un pequeño dispositivo que alberga una colonia de moscas y que contiene comida, agua y luz para que estas pequeñas criaturas puedan vivir sin problemas en estos contenedores. Estos elementos poseen unos sensores que detectan cambios en los patrones de luz producidos por el movimiento de las moscas. Los datos obtenidos de estos sensores son utilizados para determinar una trayectoria de vuelo de los globos.
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source: paperblog

Terminons cette semaine passée à regarder des petits points lumineux par un projet original mettant en jeu des petits points lumineux, Fly Blimps, de David Bowen. Aucun rapport avec David Bowie, mais du cout le nom est facile à retenir. Reprenons : Fly Blimps, soit Dirigeable à Mouche, peut-être décomposé en deux éléments. Le premier, un ballon gonflé à l’hélium, porte le second, un petit airquarium, une sorte de récipient rempli d’air, de LED et de mouches! Mais qu’est ce qui a donc piqué David? Pourquoi emprisonne-t-il ces insectes ailés et mal aimés ? Dans le Fly Blimp : les mouches sont logées et nourries. Leurs mouvements déterminent la direction que prend le dirigeable, mu par une hélice. Sympa David, tu veux les transporter pour éviter qu’elles ne se fatiguent ! T’es un chic type, pas comme cet assassin de Jeongwon Ji qui voulait en faire de la salade, et dont on avait évoqué le sombre cas ici.