M.A.R.I.N. camp forum

DIY tool for measuring and communicating radiation in fish.

I had been thinking very hard about the scientific process of collecting samples for radiation measuring. I broke down the areas concerned and tried to figure out the relationships between them – the science – the samples – the public. Who are these elements I wondered, what is their character?

I found myself thinking as scientist, interpreter and citizen. I incorporated all roles in the process of figuring out how to respond to this very small activity in the hugely important and massive activity of radiation as a phenomenon overall: what of the radiation in fish in the Baltic Sea?

And so, as citizen first, I decided to become a scientist and engage in the process, however flawed my attempt, and would then try and communicate my findings, however flawed the effort. So I built my own measuring station where fish are lured into an escapable cage, measured for radiation, and the radiation is stored in a publicly accessible data transmission house above water. The last idea is an attempt to create a ‘seamark’ or ‘beacon’ that communicates both the data, and the act of collecting data.

And just when the weather dropped colder, we got our Brazilian enforcements to warm up Bascamp#2. Artist Yara Guasque and chemist Igor Rocha working on their project Mar Memorial Dinâmico.

The last 10 days, I spend on an island in the Naantali region. This was part of the MARIN residency program “Sensing the Baltic Sea”. During this beautiful and inspiring stay, I worked on Anemos Sonore, a piece that looks at a hypothetical place where sound is the primary medium to convey information. In such a world not only the displays’ design would’ve been taken a different way, but also the very basic sensory elements themself since it is of no use to first turn a signal into values (frequency, phase, amplitude, etc.), in order to convert those again into a signal needed to monitor them auditorily. To investigate this further, I devised two different scenarios, both incorporating the sensing of wind.

I wrote about my observations and insights on this page and in these blog entries.

For more information, see also the pages tai-studio and tangibleauditoryinterfaces.

The island in the Naantali archipelago where I spent the last 10 days is populated by at least 5 different ant species. One of them has an ant hill right next to the open air kitchen in which we used to cook and work. I was interested in the sound ants make when they’re running around so I recorded them.

Maybe I can use it in a setup where several pickups build into an anthill catch the sound of the crawling ants.

Anthill probing

Ants are highly social, sometimes people (e.g. Douglas Hofstadter) speak of an anthill as one distributed organism (Aunt Hill). It might be interesting to set up a telephone that connects several aunts? But actually that would be a bit too much intervention into functioning nature, possibly ruining a fluctuating biological environment. Other ideas include anthill resp. ant street listening devices.

Setup

I first tried to attach the pickup to a piece of birch bark (five by ten centimeters). Audio quality was great, though the ants where not convinced to walk on it. As shown on the photo, I eventually settled on a piezo audio transducer with attached pine tree needles (by help of a small amount of plasticine). A small piece of pine bark covered the bottom such that the ants don’t get in touch with the plasticine. Below, you find cuts from the recordings. Some people found it pretty scary when listened to them with headphones.

Ants by LFSaw

For more information, see also the pages tai-studio and tangibleauditoryinterfaces.

I am currently on a residency on a private island in the Naantali region where I work on Anemos Sonore. Luckily, the ordered windcell kits arrived just in time so that I am now in the happy situation to try out different setups.

Over the first two days, there was plenty of wind, whereas the following two days were without any wind. Now, after a small thunderstorm, the weather is much nicer (i.e. less hot and more wind), and I hope to try out the 3rd iteration of the Anemos Sonore setup. The recording below is from the 2nd version, a setup consisting of a wooden board, about 2.5m long, standing upright in the wind. Varying the direction according to the wind changes the sound from non-existent over flageolette-like to low-frequency whawha’s. Built upon the experience with it, the 3rd generation is made out of a wooden stick. It’s vibrating band is removable and the sensor unit is attached much higher such that less energy is produced, as I am not interested in the energy but in the signal’s quality.

Next steps in the project will be to get more hearing experience and then try to find interesting filter setups to manipulate the sound such that specific aspect will emerge.

Windcell, 2nd iteration by LFSaw

For more information, see also the pages tai-studio and tangibleauditoryinterfaces.