Weatherviz Kinetic Sculpture

Weatherviz Debuts in Seattle; Watch the Video

Greetings from the weatherviz project; an Internet connected, environmental data - driven sculpture created by Eric Carlson, with computer science by Alexander Jones. View a 2 minute video of weatherviz, presented earlier this summer in Seattle http://www.youtube.com/user/MrGreypants?feature=mhum

I'd appreciate your comments and recommendations on the piece and your thoughts about future venues for another installation.

About the weatherviz Initiative

We live within an invisible cloud of streaming data. We also inhabit a world of increasingly turbulent weather. weatherviz is an experiment to capture some of the ubiquitous data around us and make it more tangible through the medium of kinetic art. The weatherviz system has gathered and processed radar images from very recent weather events throughout the territorial United States. It then employs the processed data to drive a large, kinetic sculpture.



Using the metaphor of a song, weatherviz has compressed recent selected weather events, generally storms, which have occurred over several hours, into a series of short animated performances, approximately three minutes long. Commonly recorded weather parameters are represented by components in the moving sculpture: precipitation, wind, temperature and storm energy. The four moving apparatus’ of the sculpture correspond to the individual weather parameters sampled from the Internet.



Extending the song metaphor, the weatherviz sculpture is like a four piece band playing a series of tunes. As visitors watch a particular storm event play out on the sculpture, they are challenged to figure out the nature of the storm - and which apparatus/instrument represents each weather parameter. The first demonstration of weatherviz occurred July 31st in Seattle.



We currently seek another venue to demonstrate weatherviz. This could be either an outdoor or interior location and the sculpture can be readily configured to meet location and space requirements.



The Artists



Eric Carlson, weatherviz creator, is a cleantech consultant, architect and artist based in Washington, DC and Seattle. He has worked throughout the U.S and around the world on sustainable development programs, exhibitions and media.



Alexander Jones is a computer scientist and artist from Washington, DC. He has a particular interest in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to embedded hardware.



Contact



Eric Carlson

Washington, DC

eric@e2c2inc.com

www.e2c2inc.com

202.543.0604