Saturday, June 20, 2009

"Weather Metabulator" - SP Weather Station (Natalie Campbell, Heidi Neilson), Daniel Larson - 208 E. State St.


The Weather Metabulator is a collaboration between SP Weather Station (Natalie Campbell and Heidi Neilson) and Daniel Larson (PhD Biophysics, Cornell U., 2004) and was recently installed at the Queens Museum as part of the Queens International 4.
An adapted 1950s-era medical device, the ‘Metabulator’ translates real time analogue temperature measurements into a continuous chart readout. The Weather Metabulator uses an integrated circuit temperature transducer installed outdoors which produces an output current proportional to temperature. This analogue electrical signal is relayed along a wire from the transducer to a digital circuit inside the Metabulator, which translates the signal into the movement of a servo. The servo powers a motor which moves a pen which creates a real time drawn readout of temperature in the gallery.
The drawing produced by the chart readout of temperature data functions as a displaced “landscape” drawing. It is a representation of a specific place (through temperature data); at the same time it evokes maps of topography/elevation.

Weather Metabulator Components:
Integrated circuit temperature transducer, Wire, Instrument amplifier, Analogue to digital converter, Pulse width modulator, RC Servo and motor, AC synchron motor, Metabulator with existing stylus apparatus. (More technical information including circuit diagrams are available here)

SP Weather Station's website

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