.01 - Weather Permitting
Artist
Donald Fels
Collaborating Artist
Andrew Schloss
Collaborating Artist
Dale Stammen
MediumLED displays, weather devices such as anemometers and pyranometer and hydrophone, recorded and live sound, sensors
DimensionsVarious
ClassificationsMixed Media
Credit LineLibraries for All Bond 1% for Art funds
Description: Both artworks use data generated by scientific devices mounted on the building’s roof, including nine anemometers (that measure wind speed and direction), a pyranometer (that measures sunlight and tracks clouds that block the sun) and a hydrophone (an underwater microphone that picks up and amplifies the sound of rain in a vessel on the roof).
The data are read and interpreted by a complex computer program, which responds to climatic changes in Ballard by triggering both visual and auditory artworks inside the building. A computer inside the building runs custom software written in a language called Max/MSP/Jitter and with a soundcard generates six channels of audio, and drives the LED (light emitting diode) displays in the branch and service center over Ethernet.
For Weather Permitting the collected data is used to create a visual image of the motion of air molecules flowing across the roof in the LED displays inside the library. The audio-artwork Flow responds to changes in the weather, selecting different sounds selected from hundreds recorded in the Ballard area including train whistles, surf, dogs barking, boat and vehicular traffic, children playing, as well as real time rooftop audio from the hydrophone.
Location: Ballard Branch Library, 5614 22nd Avenue Northwest, Seattle WA 98107
Location: Ballard Branch Library, 5614 22nd Avenue Northwest, Seattle WA 98107
