When starting this project I had it in mind to plug-in to technology almost all of us carry on an everyday basis. The Fruit Fly Farm is a work investigating both technological society and organic (insect) society, which is being observed by the technology.

The idea of having an art piece, which is to be carried with you or worn on you, is intriguing. The Fruit Fly Farm is built as a wearable object for people to adopt. It is a personal “pet” and wearable system with a public access via mobile phone. The Fruit Fly Farm is embedded with a camera mobile phone, which is observing the fly nest. Anyone from the public can access the phone camera by sending a sms to the piece. This will trigger the camera to capture an image. The image will be sent back as a reply and also uploaded to a dedicated website where one can see all the uploaded images observing the fly nest. The sent sms-messages (comments) will be displayed on the website with the image. It is also possible to set the work to automatically capture an image in 60min. intervals and upload it to the website.

Traditionally fruit flies are considered to be a nuisance and a pest. In this piece they are treated as a living community, which can be observed by public. It is a kind of a pet, which needs care taking, but has no specific emotional characteristics. The fly nest is located in the middle of a transparent acrylic ball. The nest capsule contains rotten fruits and needs to be re-filled approximately once a week. The outer ball as well as the nest are perforated with small holes. The flies are free to fly in and out of the nest. The audience members are invited to adopt the work and become responsible for the fly farm. It is designed as a light weight transparent ball with a custom made easy-to-carry system.