A view of the major events of a fruit fly's life scaled up to human dimensions.

My Life as a Fruit Fly is one of two pieces created as part of a Tisch Interdepartmental Grant funded exhibition between media artists and microbiologists entitled Phenotypes. With animations by Ziv Schneider, I explore scale physically, temporally, and emotionally.

In an effort to encourage the audience to empathize with Drosophila, I have reimagined the life of the fruit fly in a human temporal and spatial scale. What do humans and fruit flies have in common? Isn't it the case that many of our similar actions are motivated by the same biological urge to survive? It is the evolution of our species that causes us to take our lives and decisions more seriously. Unlike the fruit fly, we comb through the possible outcomes of every possible option for every choice that we make, sometimes destructively. This playful comparison offers us a more balanced perspective on our own lives.

  • Visuals: Ziv Schneider
  • Dancer: Alison De Franco
  • Music: Simon Mathewson
  • Premiere: Phenotypes, Tisch School of the Arts, NYC, April 16, 2015

Special thanks to Tisch School of the Arts for making this project possible.


My life as a fruit fly from Caitlin Sikora on Vimeo.

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