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  • Mori:An Internet-Based Earthwork
  • Ken Goldberg, Randall Packer, Wojciech Matusik, and Gregory Kuhn

All flesh is grass.

-Isaiah (40:6)

In Mori, minute movements of the Hayward Fault in California are measured by a seismograph, converted to digital signals and transmitted continuously via the Internet to a sound installation. Inside the entry curtain, visitors follow a fiber-optic cable to the center of the resonating enclosure where a portal through the floor frames the installation's focal point. An embedded visual display and immersive low-frequency sounds are modulated by the unpredictable fluctuations of the earth's movement.

The University of California (U.C.) at Berkeley's Streckeisen STS-1 seismometer measures ground velocity in 3 orthogonal directions (x,y,z). A Quanterra Q935 datalogger digitizes the data stream, sending three 4-byte integer values 20 times per second (about 2 kbps). This data stream is sent over dedicated lines to the U.C. Berkeley Seismological Laboratory. A Pentium II server at U.C. Berkeley's Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department, <Memento.ieor.berkeley.edu>, makes a socket connection to a machine at the station to receive the real time data stream. Memento also runs the Apache Internet server for the online visual interface, which distributes Java applets to web clients. Client applets establish connections and receive continuous data streams, displayed as a ghostly monochromatic trace. Client displays are delayed 30 seconds due to buffering that provides visual continuity.

At the sound installation, another PC receives seismographic data using a second data feed from the Seismological Lab. This PC runs a visual display at the installation and outputs data in MIDI format to a Macintosh G3. The G3, running the Cycling 74 MAX/MSP software, processes the signal to modulate environmental sound samples such as rockslides, volcanic eruptions, thunderclaps, avalanches and industrial noise. The installation houses a five-channel sound system, including a powerful sub-woofer beneath the floor that transmits sound through visitors' bodies.

The sound is "conducted" by the live seismic data, including density, spectral characteristics, amplitude and spatialization. The z signal is used to shape the amplitude of the sound, creating a sonic waveform that is a direct analog of the visual display. The z signal also filters the frequency mix to add visceral, low-frequency sound components. The x and y signals are used to focus eruptive sounds at the center of the installation and to pan sounds from sustained samples through the space. Samples are slowed considerably to suggest reverberation deep within the Earth.

The fiber-optic guiderail is illuminated by a metal halide lamp, which is intermittently obstructed by a wheel driven by a MIDI-controlled stepper motor, so that high-frequency flicker corresponds to large-amplitude z motion (Fig. 1).

Mori was selected for the ICC Biennial in Tokyo and then exhibited as part of Telematic Connections, a traveling ICI show organized by Steve Dietz of the Walker Art Center.


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Fig. 1.

Ken Goldberg et al., interior, Mori acoustic installation, NTT Inter Communication Center, Tokyo, Japan, 1999. (Photo © Takashi Otaka)

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Fig. 2.

Stan Shaff, AUDIUM, 2000. AUDIUM's interior performance space, wherein compositions are performed spatially through 169 speakers. (Photo © Mark Akamine)

The title links the Japanese term for "forest-sanctuary" with the Latin for "reminder of mortality." In this Internet-based earthwork, the immediacy of the telematic experience challenges the authenticity of media in the context of chance, human fragility and geological endurance.

The visual interface is on-line at <http://memento.ieor.berkeley.edu>.

Ken Goldberg
4135 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1777, U.S.A.
Randall Packer
2332 Huidekoper Place NW, Washington, D.C. 20007, U.S.A. E-mail: <rpacker@zakros.com>
Wojciech Matusik
43 Orient Ave., Arlington, MA 02474, U.S.A.
Gregory Kuhn
6575 Farallon Way, Oakland, CA 94611, U.S.A.
Received 21 February 2001. Accepted for publication by Roger F. Malina.
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