Re: [microsound] ars electronica.txt (?)

[Al C <omnid@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 9/4/03 8:17 PM, Ivan Bachev at navmemo@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> 
> Organism mail-list request?
> 
> An idea came to my mind while I was reading the
> catalogue of hacked  ?Ars Electronica?
> http://www32.brinkster.com/blueplane/aec03
> If a fly alight on the monitor of the computer,
> and if you move the cursor, will the fly be
> disturbed from the changes of the surface (the
> pixels)? Will it fly away?

hi,
 
This brings to mind an episode of the science program "Nova" I watched
recently. The program dealt with the way the fly hears.What they did was:
They attatched a small wire to a fly. Then, They placed the fly on top of a
trackball from a computer. The ball of the trackball was replaced with a
ping-pong ball so the fly could mave it easier. Then, They put a small
speaker on a little rotating arm wich swiveled around the fly in a 360
degree motion. They then played the sound of a cricket through the little
speaker in front of the fly. As the speaker circulated the fly would follow
in wich ever direction the speaker would go. What they were trying to prove
was that the fly could hear directionality. As we all know the space between
the ears of a fly is very,very small(their ears are actually kind of under
their chests) so in theory it would be very hard for them to hear in a
directional manner. Don't really know if this helps at all but it just might
I guess.It certainly is an interesting idea you brought up Ivan!

best,
omnid

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