The practices of visualisation and optical technologies allow us to direct our sight, to augment our perception of the visual work, and to make the invisible tangible. This module offers students a range of experimental approaches to the production of the visual and sonic media.
Realtime Project - Inspiration (Heng & Merryweather)
Having decided on an idea for a project I thought i’d have a look at some unusual techniques that have been adopted in seismology in the past to see if they can influences in my own project.
Firstly I looked at Zhang Heng’s Seismograph built in 132 A.D. It worked by housing a pendulum that was surrounded by 8 balls, when the pendulum felt any seismic activity it would push out one of the balls into a receptacle below. This would show the direction of the earthquake had come from.
The design of the device was very elaborate and contained 8 dragon heads each holding a ball, with 8 corresponding frogs with mouths open ready to catch the falling ball.
It first worked in 138 A.D. detecting an earthquake 1000km away. It was the first time mankind had used an instrument to detect an earthquake.
Then I looked at the The Tempest Prognosticator AKA ‘The Leech Barometer’ which was created in the 19th Century by George Merryweather. It worked by having 12 Leeches kept is small vials, and when a storm is near they become agitated and try to crawl out, triggering a small hammer that strikes a bell. The more bells struck, the higher the likely hood of an incoming storm.
Merryweather referred to the leeches as his “jury of philosophical councillors”.
Both of these machines are highly interesting and I would love to create something equally fascinating and theatrical.
