CLEPSYDRA PROJECT
R E S E A R C H O F M E T R E C O L L A B O R AT I V E , C A . 2 0 1 8 “Materiality is not just a question of materials or the province of mediums. It fundamentally means activating material relations and conveying their transformation.� - Giuliana Bruno
CLEPSYDRA PROJECT A P R I L 2 0 1 9 D O C U M E N TAT I O N
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R E S E A R C H O F M E T R E C O L L A B O R AT I V E , C A . 2 0 1 8
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Coastal observation flight over the coast of Maine, via N8442Y based in Houlton
INTENT Nature is an anthropocentric concept, made a separate wholistic entity for most of our Western practical and theoretical purposes. We as the human We, however, continually find ourselves encountered by, surrounded, and encroached by this Nature. In this bifurcated relationship we have defined, encroachment is most clearly defined as danger and unrest, as the waters’ edge is equivocal to our political boundaries. Our seaside urban spaces are affected the most by these waters, as the tide ebbs and flows along their edges. Among the several voices echoing throughout the environmental/ political/design theatre, it is our aim to approach the topic of sea level rise in an empirical and artful way, allowing the forms to speak to the received ocean data. It is through these visual forms that we as a public may see what has become ubiquitous in this time: the ocean, and begin to build better policies and practical applications of such. Through the CLEPSYDRA Project, these applied policies and technologies will begin one by one speaking to the larger, increasingly wicked problems throughout the Russian doll of climate change.
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With backgrounds ranging from the visual arts to complex vehicular systems thinking, METRE excels to meet the challenge of creating such designs that will assist in the public conversation. Research and testings will be ongoing, in assistance of donors and sponsorships, sought currently. We hope that we can partner in future works, as we seek to be stewards of our world together. Our intimate relationship with water has vastly degraded until now, where only recently it has become a well known fact that the ocean is changing in several ways, and quickly. Now, more than ever, we need to be retuned with our waters and what they are telling us.
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D EFI N IT I O N S Fundamentally in design, we are always chasing down the problem-solving questions of where and how. The CLEPSYDRA Project quickly gets underway in solving the “how?”, yet the where of it all is crucial, as the data must be received from a fixed point above the waters’ surface. A pier is an ideal location, as seen in
this graphic, as it extends over the ocean. A lost art and technology, the transposing of water as data, was in the form of a clock for millenia. This was so prevalent through time, the mechanical term clepsydra was given to our musings. Giving new form to the ubiquitous waters, and the old clock mechanisms,
a clepsydra for the public square is needed for several reasons. In a time where we need to be in tune and in stride with our oceans, this architecture will allow us to do so and quell the global pandemic of rising waters and complicated political conversations needed.
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Registration mechanics materials pallette#1
8 Data receiving probe and coding test
Registration mechanics materials pallette #1
Form is another element of the didactic vernacular of this device. While it may function digitally and mechanically very clearly and directly, the visual relationship with the viewer is key in the translation of the waters’ surface. Visual testings will be carried out continuously until utmost clarity is achieved.
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R EG I S T R AT I O N Nature is never static, even if it appears motionless. It is an amassed ecology of complex, moving parts, with consequences never ending. Interactions with these kinetic systems can be challenging, and even devastating, for humans’ more static civilizations. Is there a way to gather and augment the oceans’ data, into an accessible and visual
translation? This is the goal of the CLEPSYDRA Project. With data received in real time it brings a visual display to a ubiquitous giant, and can assist in active policy making to quell the advancing tides. The resultant quanta of tide, swells, wind fetch, and waves, can be captured with coded probes set in a grid datum, sending their data wirelessly to
our public squares where the haptic architecture resides. Utilized as a tool to implement change, this didactic device gives an augmented and translated voice to our environment, and can display real time water characteristics through a beautiful performance in the public’s view.
10 Conceptual depiction of array of environmental sensors, which gather data of the water’s surface.
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Current sculptural haptic form for public space display, with this graphic showing a range of metamorphoses, from low to high tide.
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Sculptural haptic armature deployed in a public urban space; in coastal city of Boston as an example.
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R EG I S T R AT I O N As we move forward in the reasearch and display of Nature as an activeand-not-static series of protagonists, antagonists, and of events unfolding, deployment of graphics and forms are key. Beyond speculative and theoretical depictions of these displays of information, however, physical steps must be taken
in order to intervene and quell the great issues of climate change. And there is no exception with sea level rise. As data amasses and material testings roll out, sponsorship is needed to effectively move forward. The public must see, assess, and come to terms with our wicked problems we have become a part of in our environment.
It is an active decision as to whether we play the role of protagonist or antagonist, or even a passerby, in the global events to come. The CLEPSYDRA Project is one small step in the direction of active environmental stewardship that we must take part of.
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