architecture

Monday, November 6, 2006

Fault whispers

It seems that "a pair of shiny, stainless-steel spheres measuring 7 feet in diameter and standing 50 feet apart" will soon be installed in a new San Diego park by artists Po Shu Wang and Louise Bertelsen. Together, the spheres will "enable visitors to 'eavesdrop' and monitor the earthquake fault" that cuts diagonally through the city.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
    A small microphone lowered into a tube ending near the fault would transmit the sounds of typical, infinitesimal subterranean movement. The sound, which the artists would make audible to humans, could be heard in the park through a loudspeaker mounted inside a cone-shaped opening in the sphere. In addition, they plan to use new cell-phone technology to connect the mike to an international communications system. People all over the world could "dial up" to hear what the artists call "fault whispers."
(Story via The Dirt. Earlier: resonator.bldg, in which we learn that a man "equipped with seismometers... can turn architectural structures into giant musical instruments and demolish buildings with sound alone." See also Dolby Earth).

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