Scandinavian artist merges cellphones and fruit flies, world wonders why

We know that Scandinavians have a reputation for high-tech and ultra-liberal attitudes, but this one may be a bit over the top. Laura Beloff, an artist who seems to have a penchant for her cellphone and for fruit flies, has built what she calls "The Fruit Fly Farm" -- a wearable sculpture involving a transparent acrylic ball that contains a bunch of fruit flies munching away on a piece of rotting fruit. A cellphone is positioned so that its camera can take a picture of the swarm in action upon receiving a text message from the public; the snapshot is then uploaded to a website for posterity and is also sent back to the sender as a reply. If you want to get your own shot of these amazingly boring insects, you've got until November 30 to text [phone] (Norway), after which time the shirtless dude walking around in the Norwegian winter wants to get some clothes on.

[Via Textually]

[Mr. H @ Nov 26th 2006 2:55AM]

Honestly, how am I supposed to even react to this post?

[Cosmos @ Nov 26th 2006 4:26AM]

"I, for one, welcome our future celebrity fruit fly overlords."

[Rod @ Nov 26th 2006 3:00AM]

Those "amazingly boring" insects, drosophila, have taught us something rather important- that chromosomes carry genes. I wouldn't dismiss them as just another annoying little creature.

[Deluxe @ Nov 26th 2006 3:11AM]

Yes, well communism taught us a lot too.

[EliasF @ Nov 26th 2006 3:08AM]

I for one do not wish to welcome the cellphone radiation mutated fruit flies that are wanting to feast on our naked bodies.

[Jeremy @ Nov 26th 2006 3:21AM]

.....

how much would it cost to text from the US to Norway?

Jk.

[Cesar @ Nov 26th 2006 3:57AM]

Totally off subject but, Pepperoni Nipples. The end.

[Brandon West @ Nov 26th 2006 4:17AM]

what

[Sixtyfivebit @ Nov 26th 2006 4:21AM]

Oh my god.

[John Doe @ Nov 26th 2006 4:35AM]

They will call anything art now a days.

[marc crespell @ Nov 26th 2006 6:14AM]

Poor flies, please put a shirt on.

[L0j1k @ Nov 26th 2006 2:02PM]

Text messages from the US to anywhere really are extremely (relatively) cheap. I was in Iraq and my wife would text my native cellphone for less than 50 cents, and I could reply for around 30.

[v_dogg @ Nov 26th 2006 4:12PM]

Ughh please put on a shirt

[Captain ?eg? @ Nov 26th 2006 6:39PM]

Well well. Laura Beloff isn't halfway close to a norwegian name, so this must be some import-chick from the states going nuts in our country :P
As for our winter, it isn't all what it used to be - the snow that came one day early this month has rained away and last night it was 10'C outside -.-* Not that I'm complaining ^^

As for texting here... If I'm not very mistaken here, US text messages are a hell of a lot more expensive than norwegian (here it's max ~10cents each), and since this...thing...replies with a MMS, I'd guess there's an additional fee for texting to it, although it's a regular cell phone number.

[chris @ Nov 26th 2006 11:19PM]

these messages arent being delivered to this #. is the phone turned off? delivery reports to this # all coming back as "buffered". that can only mean the phone is turned off or his service isnt working. what up wit dat?

[Andrea @ Nov 29th 2006 11:28PM]

Fruit flies aren't boring at all!

They do lots of cool things, like when they fight they sometimes stand up on their hind legs and flail their other legs at each other like they're boxing. Or sometimes they use their legs like swords and slash at each other. If you don't believe me, check out these videos:
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v9/n12/suppinfo/nn1809_S1.html (I guess you need a subscription to Nature though).

AND if you mutate just one gene, you can make a female fly behave like a male fly (I mean, they fight like a male fly and try to mate with other female flies) and vice versa.

Fruit flies are awesome.