Let Flies Swarm Your Face For the Sake of Art

Coder Coded – Oh-Bugs from Coder Coded on Vimeo.

All those classic “evil bugs” moments from Constantine, The Exorcist, The Green Mile, and other insect-fueled horror fantasies now feature in an interactive installation that lets you (yes, you!) experience what it might be like to be covered in an animated swarm of flies.

For CoderCoded’s interactive piece, Oh-Bugs, which is now on view at the Heureka Finnish Science Center, the Finnish design and programming team comprised of Pekka Toiminen, Juha Rantanen, and Joonas Ruuskanen use OpenCV and Pyglet software, a Mac Mini, a Logitech C920 webcam, and Lucas-Kanade optical flow tracking to provide audiences with a mirror image covered in a swarm of 300 flies. 

In the video that documents the Oh-Bugs piece (above), participants look genuinely engaged, albeit slightly disoriented. Physically, they’re unbothered, but in response to the piece, watch them twitch, grimace, and try to swat away the flies that appear on their reflections.

See more about CoderCoded here, and learn about the Heureka Finnish Science Center here.

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