2026, Realtime Data-Driven Audiovisual Installation, Custom Software (Openframeworks), Generative Sound, Dual Screen System, Variable Duration
Terrae Motus is an interactive audiovisual installation that transforms large-scale earthquake data into a multi-sensory experience, combining scientific information with artistic interpretation and public awareness. Developed using a custom software system in OpenFrameworks, the project visualizes more than 430,000 recorded earthquakes and 6.5 million data points from Türkiye and the surrounding region between 1900 and 2025. Instead of conventional graphs and maps, seismic information is reimagined as a living, time-based audiovisual ecosystem in which each earthquake becomes a dynamic visual and sonic event. Visitors encounter seismic activity not merely as numerical facts but as evolving patterns, rhythms, and intensities unfolding over time.
The installation operates through a dual-screen setup. The primary screen presents an evolving timeline where earthquakes appear as abstract visual nodes. Their size, color, and lifespan correspond to parameters such as magnitude, depth, and time, forming a continuously changing landscape of geological movement. The secondary screen reinterprets this flow through video simulations and real-time color analysis, translating statistical patterns into perceptual visual fields. A generative sound engine complements the visuals, creating a subtle auditory environment. Earthquake events trigger melodic and textural responses, allowing visitors to hear the density and rhythm of seismic activity.
By merging scientific records with artistic abstraction, Terrae Motus explores how societies perceive natural disasters through data. It proposes that information can be felt and experienced, not only read and analyzed. In a country where earthquakes are part of everyday reality, the project aims to create a reflective space that fosters awareness and data literacy without sensationalism. Positioned at the intersection of digital art, data visualization, and social memory, Terrae Motus demonstrates how creative technologies can transform complex datasets into meaningful public experiences, offering new perspectives on the relationship between humans and the dynamic planet we inhabit.