david bowen: fly blimps

‘fly blimps’ by david bowen, 2010 (plastic, electronics, houseflies, helium)

the latest project by artist david bowen titled fly blimps, is being shown in the art.tech festival at the lab in san francisco.
the festival focuses on ‘cutting-edge artistic experiments in the intersection of art and technology’ and runs from now
until october 9, 2010. bowen’s project consists of autonomous helium blimps which take their directions from small
swarms of houseflies. small chambers attached to each blimp house the flies, who serve as the brain for the flying vessels.
each chamber has food, water and light for the creatures and small sensors that detect the changing light patterns
produced by the movement of the flies. the data collected from these sensors is used to determine the flight path of
the blimps.

http://www.dwbowen.com

‘fly blimps’ by david bowen, 2010 (plastic, electronics, houseflies, helium)


‘fly blimps’ by david bowen, 2010 (plastic, electronics, houseflies, helium)


‘fly blimps’ by david bowen, 2010 (plastic, electronics, houseflies, helium)


‘fly blimps’ by david bowen, 2010 (plastic, electronics, houseflies, helium)