UC Berkeley

In Bloom, an Internet-based earth-art-work, minute movements of the Hayward Fault in California are detected by a seismograph, transmitted continuously via the Internet, and processed to generate an evolving field of circular blooms. The size and position of each bloom is based on real-time changes in Earth’s motion, measured as a vertical velocity continuously updated from the seismometer. The horizontal position of blooms is based on time, and their vertical position is based on magnitude of the second derivative or rate of change. Large movements create large blooms; small jitters create tiny buds. This essay presents several stills from the Bloom project, and an essay on the work and its creator, Ken Goldberg.