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'quakescape 3D fabricator' by james boock
the 'quakescape 3D fabricator' is a device that was created in response to the christchurch earthquakes by new zealand designer james boock in
collaboration with josh newsome-white, brooke bowers, hannah warren, george redmond, richie stewart and philippa shipley.
'quakescape' takes earthquake data and transfers it into art by using a scaled down landscape of christchurch as the 'blank canvas' and extrudes
paint onto the exact location of the earthquake - creating the transformation from data to art.
the device works by taking earthquake data from the site geonet and transfers it into the medium of art by
using paint and arduino technology. the surface that the paint is applied to is a CNC-routed landscape of christchurch, new zealand -
this acts as the blank canvas and allows the paint to move around the landscape creating amazing colourful visuals.
the colours represent the magnitude of the tremors, and is run on two horizontal axis by stepper motors powered by g-code generated through arduino.
this allows the nozzle head to be moved to the precise location of the earthquake, once the location is determined the pigment is then
pumped from the containers through the tubes and extruded out the nozzle. this is the moment where precise magnitudinal data gets
converted into an artform.

the device was created in response to the christchurch earthquakes in new zealand

the artform landscape close up

the printer nozzle

the device's stepper motor

the colours represent the magnitude of the tremors, and is run on two horizontal axis by stepper motors powered by g-code generated through arduino

isometric view of the finished piece

the blank canvas

CNC-routing the canvas

colour code
a video showing the quakescape in operation
video courtesy oliver ellmers
design team:
josh newsome-white, ames boock, brooke bowers, hannah warren, george redmond, richie stewart and philippa shipley
designboom has received this project from our 'DIY submissions' feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication.
see more project submissions from our readers here.
Quakescape 3D Fabricator from Oliver Ellmers on Vimeo.
and so what??!!
so what…… artsy-fartsy
Is this being exhibited in Christchurch? Where can we see it?
this is bad
It seems like an interesting idea. But the video is very frustrating, I was hoping to see how it worked but all the black screens and odd camera angles just made it impossible to see what was going on.