A couple of weeks ago I finished a beast of a project....

A couple of weeks ago I finished a beast of a project.

The interactive installation (titled InStability) is an artistic endeavor to demonstrate how seismic stations in Iceland detect earthquakes.

Visitors are invited to touch the map, triggering "earthquakes", and observe how LEDs, representing seismic and GPS stations, light up as the seismic waves propagate across Reykjanes peninsula.

#iceland #seismology #maps #art #mastoart #electronics #installation #dataviz #earthquake #gps #design

A black fabric displays a map of the Reykjanes peninsula. The legend at the bottom of the map reads, "white dot: seismic stations; red dot: GPS stations; triangle: volcanoes". A multitude of red and white LEDs are lit on the background.

The same map is displayed. More white topographic outlines are visible, along with some red lines and shapes representing roads and other infrastructure. Some LEDs are also lit.

Same map, different perspective (from the top). A man's hand gently touches the map, causing the LEDs to light up. There are about a dozen of them on the map, some of which are under the man's hand. Bright light shines through his fingers.

Close up of the map and LEDs. You can see the texture of the fabric and the details of the design. Each LED (attached to the map) has a printed text under or above it. The texts we can see on the photo: BLAL, HS02, THNA, THOB, MELH. These are names of GPS stations that are used to measure earthquakes in Iceland.

Like 7 May at 16:12 | Open on mas.to

3 comments

karafuto

The map itself and a close up of the area around Grindavik

A black map of Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, with white colored topographic outlines and red colored infrastructure. There are 56 red and white dots spread around the map, most of them in the South, close to Grindavik.
Legend on the bottom --
White dot: Seismic stations. Red dot: GPS stations. Triangle: Volcanoes. Red line: Roads. Red dotted line: Lava field boundary. Couple of white lines: Contours: interval 20m.
Text on the right side of the map --
Elevation data: National Land Survey of Iceland. Locations for seismic and GPS stations are kindly provided by Bryndis Brandsóttir (HI), Halldór Geirsson (HI), and Bethany Vanderhoof (Veðurstofa). Other geographic data curtesy of OpenStreetMap. Designed and produced by ukiyo-kór in 2024

Close up of the same map. Can see Grindavik, mountains and volcanoes around it, as well as names of stations

7 May at 16:24 | Open on mas.to

karafuto

For the soundscape I used a modified recording from Earthtunes. The audio is made from actual seismic data, recorded in Grindavik last year on the 10th of November (when the town was evacuated). Here's a video so you can hear and see the installation in action:

7 May at 20:27 | Open on mas.to

karafuto

One day I'll write a long blog post about the process of making it all happen. For now, I'll just say that this installation wouldn't have happened without the phenomenal @rysiek who wrote the software for it and built the table.
Huge thanks to @tomasino and @esi as well for their help. Those guys rock!

Artistic representation of broken ground around Svartsengi power plant

An illustrated black and white triptych with three GPS stations connecting to one satellite. Names on the bottom are the names of GPS stations on Reykjanes peninsula:

NYLA - HAFC - SYRF - RVIT - SAFH - NAMC - HRAG - ELDC - VMOS GEVK - SKSH - NBIO - BLAL - HSO2 - SENG - THNA - THOB - GRIV GRIC - GRVV - GRVM - AUSV - NORV - ASVE - SUND - LISK - SUDV VOGC - KAST - FEFC - GONH - SLEI - SNAT - KEIC - HAMD - AFST HVAS - ODDF - MOHA - KRIV - REYK - UNDH - KLVC - HERV - HELF HVSK - VOGS - GFEL - HUSM - HLID - HVEH - NVEL - OLKE - HVER

7 May at 20:28 | Open on mas.to