Category Projects

Entries 15 Total

Weather Pong

May 17, ’11 7:31 PM

Weather Pong receives weather data from Seoul (South Korea) and Auckland (Australia) via network. To do this, in two cities we installed environmental sensor kits enabling to gather local weather data. The game also collects words concerning weather and environments from websites and social networks such as Google, Naver, and Twitter. Based on such data, the game engine creates weather bubbles and sound. During game-playing the bubbles continue to increase in number and then approach the center of game stage from both sides (cities). The gamer must burst appropriate bubbles approaching her/him by passing the ball through the opposite side or reflecting the ball with the paddle in order to keep an environmental balance between two areas. The burst bubbles directly influence the virtual tree’s life in each area, and the gamer must keep their life and help their growth smoothly. If the bubbles arrive to the center of stage or one of trees dies, the game is over. The weather data and words are also used to control the game difficulty and game environment such as the ball speed, bubbles number and hardness, paddle length, sound, etc. By doing so, the game tries to prevent the gamer from winning the game. When playing this game, the gamer, as a mediator between our environments, will have a chance to realize the importance of our eco-environmental issues.



ARTIST BIOS

Dr. Zune Lee is an artist, who has been crossing various fields such as visual art, music and technology. His media art pieces have been showcased domestically (MediaBottles, Trialogue) and internationally (Mixplore, A Bottle of Weather). His recent works introduce the sense of taste and synesthetic concepts to the sphere of art in various projects (Bottlogics, Butchered Text). He graduated from Stanford University (MA/MST, CCRMA, 2005) and Seoul National University (BFA in Visual Communication Design, 1999/BS in Computer Science and Engineering, 2001).  Recently, he received his PhD in Culture Technology from the Graduate School of Culture Technology at KAIST (2011). http://studiobottles.net

Chihyoung Shim, a designer and engineer, is interested in generative design and kinetic sculptures. He studied mechanical engineering (BS & MS at Seoul National University) and worked in a heavy equipment company as an engineering designer. Currently he studies design management at IDAS (International Design School for Advanced Studies, Hongik University). Chihyoung, as a visual programmer, participated in Seoul Square Media Canvas Project: Big Screen Big Game, 2010.

Changgyun Jung, a sound designer, has been interested in creating ambient sound. He has participated in several sound performances and new media art projects such as Hello World Vol.2 (2010), Hello World Vol.3 (2011), A Night of SuperCollider (2010), Seoul Square Media Canvas Project: Big Screen Big Game (2010).

Inho Won is studying interaction design and new media art in Seoul National University. Inho has concentrated on game art and generative art based on creative programming. Recently he showcased Break Me, Game+Interactive Media Art Exhibition, The Museum of Art, Seoul National University, 2010, and he also took a part in Seoul Square Media Canvas Project: Big Screen Big Game, 2010.

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echo::system

May 17, ’11 7:26 PM

The echo::system installation looks at the geographic, historical and cultural conditions of the U.S. southwestern desert with a dynamic, simulated walk through the landscape on “smart” treadmills. The work investigates links between large issues of socio-ecological complexity and direct embodied experience: emphasizing the importance of a self-direction, aesthetics and physical investment.

Our refitted treadmill is an interactive interface that encourages a kinetic sense of navigation through abstract knowledge. This affords the user a physical, highly embodied experience to reconnect complex ecological data sets with cultural narratives. By involving the intention of the whole body in a motor-sensory experience, this work looks to create new scenarios for comprehension and contemplation of the environment.

As one of the fastest growing urban areas in the world, the Phoenix Arizona area is uniquely situated around issues of sustainability. Water usage, transportation, climate change, and migration bring immense challenges to this region. Yet these issues are not new – historically, a diverse range of strategies for living sympathetically with the land developed by indigenous people living in the Sonoran Desert, are generally overlooked or misunderstood by much of the current population.

echo::system is an installation work lead by Grisha Coleman and a collaborative team of artists, technologists and researchers at Arizona State University.



ARTISTS BIOS

Grisha Coleman is an Assistant Professor of Movement, Computation and Digital Media at the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and School of Dance at Arizona State University. She is a dancer, composer and media artist working with performance and experiential media systems. She spent three years as a research fellow/artist-in-residence at Carnegie Mellon University’s Studio For Creative Inquiry for the development of her current work, echo::system. Ms. Coleman has created large scale works for a variety of residencies and venues including: the Banff New Media Institute [Canada], the Beall Center for Art and Technology at UC Irvine [CA], Eyebeam Centre for Art and Technology [NY] and the Montalvo Arts Center in Silicon Valley.
Notable work includes a commission by Robotics Institute [CMU] for a public, site-specific robot in Pittsburgh’s Robot 250 Festival. Reach, Robot worked as a public sound sculpture, a visual/kinetic installation and a domain for public interaction and participation.

Todd Ingalls is an Associate Research Professor and Chair of Graduate Studies at the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University. Todd Ingalls is a media composer who works with interactive performance and experiential media systems. He is currently Associate Professor of Research in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University where he also serves as Chair of Graduate Studies. His research focuses on gestural communication and embodied media interaction, affect in music, and algorithmic media composition as well as novel mediated environments for stroke and Parkinson’s disease rehabilitation. He is involved in both the Mixed Reality Rehabilitation and Participatory Culture groups at AME.

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Oil Compass

May 17, ’11 7:13 PM

“Oil Compass” explores the potential of the future effects of oil spills on oceans through the convergence of past records with present real-time data. Sey Min and Kasia Molga attempt to envision possible future response for the novel oil spill cleaning technology called Protei: a swarm of autonomous sailing robots that would monitor and clean up oil spills.

Through examining other factors such as changes in fish migration or death and disappearance of certain insects and birds from the affected coastlines, Min and Molga visually conceptualize long-term consequences on the whole planet and human kind. Visitors are invited to navigate through the major areas affected by oil spills around the globe through the interactive installation of screens to explore the diversity of the problem. Can we really connect with the complex subject of oil spills and understand its environmental impact? Based on real-time and real-life updates “Oil Compass” evokes a sense of urgency to the visitors.


ARTISTS BIOS

Sey Min is a multi-disciplinary interactive designer, who’s interest is in dealing with live data sets in various media formats. Through her projects she re-imagine how humans relate to technologies, to societies and cities, and to environments. She is the founder and organizer of randomwalks.org(www.randomwalks.org), which is half profit/none-profit media art studio in korea. Sey Min received a M.F.A. in the interactive media from Pratt institute.

Kasia Molga is a London based interdisciplinary artist and interaction designer, who explores notions of interconnectedness and hyperlinked world through the deployment of social media technologies. Although poetic and visually beautiful her work questions the effect of instant information flow and connectivity on the perception of self in the context of “Spaceship Earth.” She holds an MA in Interdisciplinary Design from Central Saint Martin College of Art and Design (London, UK) previously studied Fine Arts (MFA) in Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan (Poland).

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Weather Inflections

May 17, ’11 6:33 PM

This project strives toward an ontological reframing of the relationship between our bodies, the environment and technologically mediated experience through computational sensing, processing and actuation. Weather Inflections explores issues embedded within the philosophical landscape of phenomenology. Specifically, how we as embodied beings experience changing weather patterns and our environment. In facilitating a temporary rupture in an individual’s perceptual framework, the Weather Inflections installation seeks to expand the vocabulary of awareness of its audience and challenge established paradigms of sensory cognizance. By ‘crossing the perceptual wires’ and initiating a synaesthetic experience, an individual may observe spatially and temporally mapped digital data within their physical self as manifested by a tactile and aural experience. This interactive installation further seeks to critically question how our relationship to computing technology is effected and affected through mediation with embodied interaction modalities.

The aesthetic approach of this project is inspired by the neurological phenomenon of synaesthesia. When exposed to some stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway, a person who experiences synaesthesia may have an automatic and involuntary experience in a second pathway (Cytowic, Eagleman, & Nabokov, 2009, p. 309). For example, looking at a picture may evoke a particular smell or listening to a passage of music may conjure an image of wavering colours. This work does not attempt to engage with any theories or arguments surrounding synaesthesia, rather it merely draws upon synaesthesia as a source of aesthetic inspiration for the artwork. The focus of this project is to explore notions of embodied interaction through the lens of phenomenology by expressing our interactional relationship with computer data and its mediation of the experience of the climate / environment.

Climate change is a fiercely debated topic both in mainstream media commentary and also in wider global and national political discourses. With governments and industry each pouring significant investment into research that furthers their own individual political agendas, many reasonable positions have emerged as to what can only be construed as ‘the interpreted reality’ of climate change or lack thereof. As embodied beings, our phenomenological reality is that while we may be able to acutely sense climate changes in the present moment, it is much more difficult to recall and make accurate comparisons between sensory perceptions across different spatial- temporal mappings. Weather Inflections aims to help bridge this perceptual gap by allowing users to have an immediate tactile experience of changes in climate data through the process of sonification. In addition to providing a novel, visceral representation of the data, this approach may also help an individual literally ‘internalize’ the experience of climate change. Tammy Freiler, a researcher in the field of Adult Learning and Somatics suggests that for many in the Western world, describing and interpreting the experience of embodiment remains awkward and challenging. Our society’s preoccupation with physical appearance, body consciousness and to some extent, disembodied virtual interactions, goes some way in accounting for why many people are becoming increasingly disconnected from and inattentive to their bodies (2008, p. 39). Indeed Freiler even goes so far as to suggest that, one day our very survival may depend on embodiment in our personal spaces and sensory awareness of our surrounding environment (2008, p. 45).

METHODOLOGY

To investigate the concepts outlined above, we propose to build a multi-channel, interactive, tactile transduction installation entitled Weather Inflections. This work will feature a somatic sonification of climactic and environmental data as mapped across spatial-temporal parameters. By translating changes and patterns in the data set into tactile sonifications, Weather Inflections aims to provide a physically tangible inference of co-locatedness through spatial mapping within the mediation of our cognitive experience of the world, and additionally through more direct interactions with our environment as physically embodied agents.

Sonification is described as “the use of nonspeech audio to convey information” (Thomas Hermann, 2008). Adderly & Young further elucidate that sonification aims to, “render complex and multidimensional data susceptible to intuitive or more methodical appraisal and analysis, potentially via an interactive interface” (2009, p. 5). Due to the spatial and temporal characteristics of the Weather Tunnel’s sensor input data, the technique of sonification offers some potential advantages over more traditional data visualisation techniques as the human auditory system is capable of being aware of both subtle variations in data and overall global attributes, even where multiple simultaneous streams of information are presented (Adderley & Young, 2009, p. 5).

Furthermore, sonification as a novel mode of data representation offers a range of characteristics that may be positively leveraged in the context of this work:

  • Sound represents frequency responses in an instant (as timbral characteristics)
  • Sound represents changes over time, naturally
  • Sound allows microstructure to be perceived
  • Sound rapidly portray large amounts of data
  • Sound alerts listeners to events outside their current visual focus
  • Sound holistically brings together many channels of information (Thomas Hermann, n d)

The sonification algorithm for Weather Inflections will incorporate the auditory display techniques of Parameter Mapping Sonification and Model Based Sonification.

y = f(x) = σ(Ax)

In Parameter Mapping Sonification (PMS), data streams are transformed into acoustic streams using the above mapping function where the acoustic attributes vector y, is calculated using a linear transformation A, and a nonlinear distortion function σ. The components of y are sound synthesis parameters like for instance frequency, amplitude or modulation indices (T. Hermann, Höner, & Ritter, 2006, p. 314).

In contrast, Model Based Sonification (MBS) utilises a dynamic model that acts as a mediator between the input data and the output sound. The input data determines the setup of a dynamic system whose temporal evolution is the only process that generates the sound (T. Hermann et al., 2006, p. 314). Each technique offers its own unique advantage. In Parameter Mapping Sonification the output sound has a direct mathematical relationship with the input data, however Model Based Sonification could subjectively produce acoustic relationships that are more intuitively understood by the listener.

The sonification algorithm of Weather Inflections will retrieve historical weather data from Perth, Western Australia dating back to the early 1900s as recorded by the national Bureau of Meteorology and compare it with the current sensor data recorded at Curtin University. The data variance will then be calculated, processed and translated into electrical impulses output by tactile transducers.

The goal of Weather Inflections is not to browse the Weather Tunnel data set, but rather allow users to navigate and tangibly connect with the data in a tactile manner, thereby providing an arguably more phenomenological, intimate experience with the information and variance patterns contained within it.

For a brief description of the Weather Inflections installation experience, please refer to the attached “WeatherInflections-Experience.pdf” document.

Installation Technical Requirements

  • 6 x i-mu resonance speakers placed into purpose-built audio-dampened enclosure / stand
  • 1 x LCD Touchscreen or 1 x iPad built into the above stand (For audience interaction)
  • 1 x Mac Mini (Running custom Sonification Software)
  • 3 x sets of over-the-head style ear protectors (For audience interaction)
  • 1 x MOTU Ultralite mk3: USB/Firewire Multichannel Audio Interface
  • 6 x 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch audio cables, 5 meters long: Mono to Stereo connectors
  • 1 x Australian Powerboard with at least 10 ports available
  • 1 x Power Plug converter to change above Powerboard to the native plug shape of installation country. (Not required for China)

Plus either

  • 1 x USB 2.0 Cable, 2 metres long: Standard Type A to Type B connectors or
  • 1 x Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 convertor, plus
  • 1 x Firewire 400 cable, 2 meters long: Standard 6 pin to 6 pin connectors

Additional equipment required during setup:

  • Wired connection (RJ-45) to the internet for Pachube data input
  • 1 additional monitor, keyboard & mouse for initialization of the system
  • 1 x HDMI to DVI or HDMI to VGA cable to connect the above monitor

Duplicate backup of above system.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • Adderley, W. P., & Young, M. (2009). Ground-breaking: Scientific and Sonic Perceptions of Environmental Change in the African Sahel. Leonardo, 42(5), 404-411. doi:i: 10.1162/ leon.2009.42.5.404</p>
  • Cytowic, R. E., Eagleman, D. M., & Nabokov, D. (2009). Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia. The MIT Press.
  • Freiler, T. J. (2008). Learning through the body. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2008(119), 37-47. doi:10.1002/ace.304
  • Hermann, T., Höner, O., & Ritter, H. (2006). AcouMotion–An Interactive Sonification System for Acoustic Motion Control. Gesture in Human-Computer Interaction and Simulation, 312-323.
  • Hermann, Thomas. (2008). Taxonomy and Definitions for Sonification and Auditory Display. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Auditory Display. Paris, France. Retrieved from Proceedings/2008/Hermann2008.pdf
  • Hermann, Thomas. (n.d.). An Overview of Auditory Displays and Sonification. SONIFICATION.DE. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from http://sonification.de/son

weatherinflections



ARTIST BIOS

Joel Louie is a PhD Candidate at Curtin University. Joel’s research and creative practice seek to explore how our relationship to computing technology is effected and affected through mediation with embodied interaction modalities. Influenced by the aesthetic of synaesthesia, Joel enjoys making interactive artifacts that translate one set of sensory input into a different set of sensory output. In addition to being a new media artist and composer, Joel is also a dedicated educator and researcher in the area of Human-Computer Interaction. His PhD dissertation is entitled, “Embodied Interaction: Tangible Human-Computer Interfaces using the corporeal frameworks of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Rudolf Laban.”

Jan L Andruszkiewicz completed a Bachelor of Arts, Fine Art, Sculpture Major at Curtin University in 1992 and a Bachelors degree in Computer Science at Edith Cowan University in 2007. He is in the process of completing a Master of Philosophy (creative arts) degree at Curtin University Perth, WA.
His thesis title: “Re-imaging visual information complexity: A creative approach to information entropy, perception, identification and understanding” is due for completion late 2011. Jan is a member of the Australian Computer Society (ACS), a Professional Member of the Association for Computing Machinery, and an Associate Member of Leonardo/ ISAST.

Bryan J Mather is a polymath with two specific fields of expertise, Information Technology and Fine Art, and since 1981 he has alternated between these two careers. Bryan’s current research is into the effect of computer language (algorithmic) structure on digital reality. It extends the idea that we are constrained to a reality that exists in language, and proposes the digital simulacrum we live within is constrained by the algorithms we use to speak it into existence. The subject of this research is the mass uncontrolled experiment of digital culture, and its fundamental changes to human cognition, behaviour and communication.

Kevin Raxworthy is senior technician in the Studio of Electronic Arts (SEA) at Curtin University of Technology. Kevin has been working in the area of media art since 1983. He was the technical support officer for the Biennale of Electronic Art Perth 2002 and 2004. Raxworthy has been working in collaboration with Paul Thomas on the Midas Project that was exhibited at Enter 3 Prague in 2007. In their current project Nanoessence he is writing an algorithm based on cellular automaton. The algorithm is affected and stimulated by using the different information gained from sensors that read the user’s breath. Kevin’s work looks at the nexus between artificial life, code space and art. He is currently completing his masters in electronic Art. Raxworthy has recently completed a Master of Art (Electronic Art)

Julian Stadon completed Ba. Fine Arts and Ma. Electronic Arts @ Curtin University. Currently working as Associate lecturer for Open Universities Australia, as Web Development and e-learning researcher for Curtin Art Online and as Research Assistant for NOMAD. Recently completed an ANAT Emerging Artists Mentorship @ Interface Culture Lab, Linz, Salford University, Manchester and Curtin University, Perth. Recently received an Australian Post Graduate Award Scholarship along with a Curtin University Research Scholarship to continue ongoing research practice

Associate Professor Paul Thomas, currently holds a joint position as Head of Painting at the College of Fine Art, University of New South Wales and Head of Creative Technologies, Centre for Culture and Technology, Curtin University of Technology. In 2009 he established Collaborative Research in Art Science and Humanity (CRASH) at Curtin http://crash.curtin.edu.au. Paul is a practicing electronic artist whose work has exhibited internationally and can be seen on his website http://www.visiblespace.com

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FaceHarp

Apr 29, ’11 5:34 PM

Concept

In our project, we regard “environment” as a man.

Which is different from tons of interactive installations, ours contain two parts of interactive concepts.the participates and the installation is the one, the other is the installation and the weather. In other words, this installation is an intermediary between participates and the “environment man”, both playing roles as message receiver, encoder and decoder.

When there’s something data higher than normal level, it means that the “environment” man get ill. And participates would be doctors, who are responsible for their patients. It’s nearly impossible to make the real environment to perceive participates’ behavior, however, through our installation, we can express a kind of concern or a kind of appeal for all the participants.

Description

Overview

Our installation receives real time environmental data from remote sensors, then visualizes those overproof part as some kinds of skin blemishes onto a human face(probable participant’s own face). Participants can pluck or strike strings(or maybe strings matrix) to cure these blemishes. On the same time, the sound created by these strings would be recorded and distributed away by internet or FM.

Structure and interaction

Basically, the whole installation is like a table, which contains three layers: screen, water and strings. And there are a camera and a kinect embedded in this table, which is used to collect participant’s face.

When a participant gets close and looks down to our installation, camera and kinect would get his face. Then screen will display a artistic face together with some skin blemishes, the number of which is according to the data received from remote sensors. When the participant struck or pluck the strings, these blemishes would fade out and the sound would be recorded and distributed.

Technical details

We use camera to catch real time face image and use Processing to do artistic work and add blemishes. The connection between strings and image is also realized by software(Processing or other Audio visualization tools). As for sound recording and distribution part, we maybe set some FM emitters or just update to internet.

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Electromechanical Solenoid Orchestra

Apr 29, ’11 5:11 PM

Benjamin Bacon (USA), Joe Saavedra (USA)

Parsons The New School for Design, School of Art, Media and Technology

Medium: Aluminum, Electronics, Musical Composition, Digital and Analog Synthesis

Brief Work Description

orchestra. The ESO stems initially from the observation that simple electromechanical actuators and solenoids can create complex machines. It is based on musical compositions created from unique, custom-made and non-traditional instruments. The form of the ESO is influenced by the Stele Forest at the Xi’an Beilin Museum. The systemic arrangement of ancient stone horse hitching posts, the assortment of sculptural characters on each post as well the musical synesthesia of being in that environment.

Accompanying the ESO is the ambient ‘Weather Ensemble’. The ‘Weather Ensemble’ is comprised of aggregate weather data pulled from the globally dispersed Weather Tunnel sensor nodes used to compose generative music and sonic landscapes in real-time. A specific set of rules is established to determine the composition and arrangement of sample-based ambient music. Sound is generated using granular synthesis in the style of musique concréte.

The Weather Ensemble serves as the ambient environmental context while the ESO performs melodies and rhythms dictated by the very same real-time data creating different melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic musical phrases that are layered and repeated as part of an aleatoric musical composition.

Label Text

Each ESO solenoid head is constructed of custom machined aluminum parts containing 12 solenoids and tuning plates made of different materials producing different types of timbre that represent a full musical octave. 4 ESO solenoid heads are grouped to create an instrument of 48 pitches or 4 octaves. Each grouped instrument represents a different melodic, harmonic and rhythmic section of the orchestra using real-time weather tunnel data to create musical phrases that are layered and repeated as part of a aleatoric musical composition.

The Weather Ensemble serves as the ambient environmental context each representing a discrete environmental factor, controlling and manipulating a single instrument that is directly or indirectly related to that environmental data. Using granular synthesis, the samples are manipulated and sequenced, often rendering the sample source nearly unrecognizable.  All sounds together create a sonic interpretation of the environment in that location at that moment in time.




ARTISTS BIOS

Benjamin Bacon is an Assistant Professor at Parsons The New School for Design. His work and research focuses on the intersection of technology, social media, mobility, sound and information design. He has lectured, performed, exhibited and lead workshops at a variety of institutions, exhibitions and conferences. He is a founding member of the new media research group SpyLab that’s mission is to create long distance collaborative projects with researchers and artists around the world. He has a BA in Cinema Studies from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons.

Joseph Saavedra earned Bachelor’s degrees in Music Composition and Technocultural Studies from the University of California, Davis in 2008.  It was around this time that his technical skills in sound, performance, research, design and led him to Parsons the New School for Design in New York City where he completed his MFA in Design and Technology in 2010. “Citizen Sensor” was his thesis project, and was recently awarded first place in the Köln International Design Preis 2010.  Currently adjunct faculty at Parsons, he teaches courses in programming and physical computing.

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Friends

Apr 29, ’11 4:41 AM

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Lost Mirror

Apr 22, ’11 7:56 PM

Concept
Our work tries to make people a deep experience of the Serious environmental pollution problem, and made people Thinking.
By analysis the environmental data of cities and combined with the data before, we can get a current data of the change of our environmental and weather. We also used a distorted mirror to represent the change of our environment, and because of those changes many creatures also ‘distorted’.

Proposal
Device
Our devices are like distorting mirror placed side by side in the weather tunnel, every mirror represents a city.

We analysis environmental data from cities, and we use the level of distortion to show how much our cities and weather changed.
Interaction
Environment in good condition, the mirror image will show the normal specular reflection; the environment is not good, the mirror presents a distorted image distortion, according to a poor environment determines and the audience position, the mirror will follow the changes in the background, showing the city’s iconic images.

Effects
The audience through the mirror and see themselves distorted in the mirror, it suggests that our environment is get bad day by day, and the bad effects also have a strong influence on ourselves. From the different mirrors, audiences can feel the different cities are in different crisis, and some of the cities may be the one they life in.
Our work tries to warn people to protect our world from ‘variation’.

Technical realization
We have two plans to realize an active distorted mirror.
1. Cam + Screen
Use camera to capture the image in front of the ‘mirror’, and distorts images through a computer program. The level of distortion is made from internet database from the cities which set the box to check environmental data every day. The output images show in a computer screen.

2. Soft material mirror
Use a soft material as the mirror, distort the reflection from distort the mirror itself with a ‘little’ hardware.

Decision
We want to show more ‘things’ in the mirror (such as a landmark of the city as a background).so we intend to use the cam + screen plan.

Research
Data
We are concerned about temperature, humidity and precipitation which reflect the general state of weather and environment, and use current data compare with the prev-data. The historical data can be searched form internet.

Data of Beijing(includes: average air pressure, monthly Temperature, Monthly max-Temperature, Monthly min-Temperature, Monthly average relative Humidity…)

Budget
Camera 150 -200; Screen 1000-1200; Mirror frame 200;

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Degree Day

Apr 22, ’11 6:13 PM

Degree Day

(working title)

The experience of weather is a physical one. Weather is the manifestation of change. The diurnal and annual rotation of the earth provide the catalyst for this change. As solar gain heats one part of the earth other parts are losing heat into the atmosphere creating the air patterns that move moisture and create weather.

The experience of weather is uniquely tied to location and time. A person experiences a variety of weathers as they move through space and time, yet at any singular moment only one weather can be experienced. This singularity causes weather to be observed relatively.

To address the changing nature of weather and its singular experience, Degree Day instantiates multiple weathers in a single location so that a twenty-four hour period of meteorological change across the surface of the earth can be experienced in a twenty-four minute loop. Each “weather” is manifested into the physical space through the use of variable speed fans. This creates a delivery of information about remote atmospheric conditions through manipulation of the local atmosphere. The divergence created by these weathers mimics the natural process of weather change.

Theory of operation:

Weather data for the previous twenty-four hours will be read from the Weather Tunnel sensor modules and combined into a single metric which represents the amount of change. This metric will be shifted in time to allow a one to one correlation of the rate of change across the range of sensor locations. For example 12 noon in New York will be compared to 12 noon in Berlin. This change metric will then be used to adjust the speed of the corresponding fan.

The rate of change from the previous twenty-four hours will be compressed into a time span of twenty-four minutes. This time compression will amplify the rate of change and allow the audience to experience the resultant atmospheric conditions dramatically. A visual representation of time will be provided in the form an analog clock which will cycle through the twenty-four time span at the same rate as the change metric.

Installation:

The nature of the installation is that its in a temporary space that acts as an entry way to the main gallery. The notion is that the viewer will be passing though, hence the “tunnel” aspect of the exhibit creates a need for an installation to catch the viewer quickly and pass its message along efficiently. This is achieved by the number of fans and the nature at which their speed is changing. This experience of the atmosphere is physically and mentally refreshing.

Physical Aesthetics:

In response to the dynamic changing nature of China’s place in the world and as a industrial and manufacturing superpower, the visual aesthetics of the installation will target an “industrial” feel. The fans will have a raw quality to reflect the manufacturing cycle. Parts, and wiring will be partially exposed as means to expose their composition. Simple cages will surround each fan to manifest the constructed aspects of the industrialization of the world. A location identification tag will be applied to each fan.

Technical Considerations:

Each fan will be fitted with a module which will provide speed control as well as access the required Weather Tunnel sensor data. These modules will be created to allow for a flexible construction of the fans. Each module will contain a wireless radio transmitter which will communicate to a central base station. This base station will require a network connection to collect the sensor data. The control modules will be constructed in a robust manner to allow for continuos operation. A single power outlet will be required for each fan.

The clock that represents the time at which the sensor reading was taken will be installed in a central location and will run on the same wireless network as the fan control modules.



ARTISTS BIOS

Leif Percifield, Chris Piuggi, Estefanie Duque, Lara Warman, and Bree Rubin are graduate students at in the MFADT program at Parsons, The New School for Design.

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Weather Tunnel

Apr 21, ’11 2:52 PM

This blog concerns the development of Weather Tunnel. In addition to serving as an archive for documentation of the projects included in the exhibition, it is designed to facilitate reflection on the development of these projects in vivo. To this end, specific information on each project will be solicited in a series of incremental steps. These cross-sectional snapshots can be viewed by using the Status navigation at the top of the page. In addition to posting updates on the progress of your own work, we encourage you to follow — and comment upon — the ongoing development of the other projects with which your work will be exhibited.

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