pieqf.allshookup.org

All Shook Up: Seismic Art

From Carrie Miller…

Too often issues of art and ethics get plugged into the broader moral panics that are endlessly swirled around by the cultural leaf blower we call the mass media - that noisy, pointless, impotent machine. While artists are first in line for a negative beat-up, the mainstream media shows little interest in another, more positive story about the ethics of art-making – those artistic projects conducted by largely unknown and unsupported artists whose passionate belief in their practice overcome incredible financial and logistical problems to achieve works of remarkable integrity….

Click HERE to read the full article and interview.

At 6.30am, Monday 18th August 2008, the PIEQF control system was switched to ‘live’ operational mode. The intention now that the installation is connected and immersed within a geological time scale, is to keep PIEQF interactively engaged within the dynamic landscape of California until the 16th November, 91 days total.

The PIEQF installation has two modes of conceptual and distinct system control.

1. Closed Loop Theory

PIEQF is triggered by all micro seismic events that occur throughout the state of California using the USGS managed Quake Data Distribution System (QDDS). The conceptual basis behind this is to bring all seismic events that occur during the time of active intervention to a hypothetical epicentre. Each time a seismic event is reported via QDDS the horizontal motion of the shake table is triggered.

2. Open Loop Theory

Surrounding the shake table and buried within the excavation is an array of vertical motion sensors (L10 Geophones). These Geophones are excited when walked over or jumped upon, triggering the vertical motion of the shake table. Visitors to the PIEQF can engage interactively with the PIEQF.

Output software will continue to be tweaked and tuned over the weeks ahead. Software has been developed by Geo Homsy (USA) and Stock (NL) from the V2 Institute for the Unstable Media.

Earth Extension Rods

On Saturday morning 16th August, thirty one 5/8″ 10ft rods were mounted to the shake table. The top six inches of these rods have been painted white to act as a visual reference point within the local environment as they deflect and resonate within the dynamic landscape surrounding Parkfield. These steel rods deflect and move each time the shake table is triggered. Unpainted hot rolled steel rods were visually lost within the field of vision surrounding the excavation.

Why steel? The decision to use steel was based on the idea that steel is the purest form of extracted raw material (iron ore) derived from the earth in which we inhabit.

Speculation and hype surrounding the price of oil and the effect it has on the economy overshadows the increase of use and rapidly rising price of steel. Demand for steel in the likes of China has resulted in extremely high prices.

Four years ago a 20ft length of 5/8 hot rolled steel rod would have cost around $7.00 USD a length. A 5/8 20ft length now costs close to $25 each. This increase has predominantly jumped over the last two years. Over the next three months I will work towards raising funds to attach another 60 rods. Including extra material and fabrication of rod mounts it will cost $50.00 USD for each extra rod to be attached to the shake table.

Can you DONATE to PIEQF?

D.V.Rogers
19th August, 2008

Imagine standing alone in Parkfield one million years ago on a vast glacial ice sheet two thousand feet thick and spanning thousands of miles wide. Alone on this horizontal sheet of white ice you would not be able to sense the slow crushing, scraping and ripping of this massive slither of frozen water as it headed south.

In the now year of 2008 our planet is effectively leaving the Little Ice Age (LIA) period which lasted between the mid 16th Century until the mid 19th Century. This medieval cold period began ending around 1850. Some global warming critics believe that Earth’s climate is still recovering from this period and that human activity is not the decisive factor in present temperature trends, but this notion is not widely accepted. Mainstream scientific opinion over the past 50 years is that global warming is caused primarily by atmospheric pollution as a direct result of human activity. Our planet was beginning to warm from around 1850 and until 1950 and it is debatable as to the causes of this warming period in which we are now experiencing.

Now in the year 2008 this planet is effectively coming out of the Little Ice Age (LIA) period which lasted between the mid 16th Century until the mid 19th Century. This medieval cold period began ending around 1850. Some global warming critics believe that Earth’s climate is still recovering from this period and that human activity is not the decisive factor in present temperature trends, but this notion is not widely accepted. Mainstream scientific opinion over the past 50 years is that global warming is caused primarily by atmospheric pollution as a direct result of human activity. Our planet was beginning to warm from around 1850 and until 1950 and it is debatable as to the causes of this warming period in which we are now experiencing.

For expanded definition of the Little Ice Age view
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_ice_age

Without biting into the global warming debate one thing that is for certain is that California at some point over the next 30 years has a 99% chance of enduring a major earthquake of Magnitude 6.7 and above.

Forecasting California’s Earthquakes—What Can We Expect in the Next 30 Years?
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3027/

Standing in Parkfield today the Pacific Plate is creeping one inch north (the same direction and displacement of the PIEQF shake table) and folding one inch west into the Pacific Ocean. If I were to stay on this geological ride it would take roughly 450 million years to get to New Zealand. Now thats a few ice ages and meteorite strikes to experience in which new evidence points to the most recent catastrophic meteorite impact took place over Canada 12,900 years ago.

Exploding Asteroid Theory
http://www.physorg.com/news134233301.html

The Parkfield Interventional EQ Fieldwork control system should go live this weekend. When the PIEQF control system is switched to geo-interactive mode so begins this dialectical time based action. This readymade collection of readymade silicon and iron ore derived components (shake table) installed in an excavated trench connects via bits and bytes with a window of deep time resulting in a temporary blip on the geological radar in which we inhabit.

Are you prepared?

D.V.Rogers

14th August 2008

I am writing this post from Sydney, Australia. Visa restrictions have brought me back to Sydney briefly (I flew out of SFO, Sunday 3rd August), in which I have an appointment with the US Consulate tomorrow morning to arrange for a six month US Visitor Visa to complete the PIEQF project. Thanks for the support letters from the USGS, The Long Now Foundation and UNSW. I am booked to fly back to San Francisco next Tuesday the 12th August. I aim to be back in Parkfield around the 13 or 14th August to test the final phase of software then switch the PIEQF system onto live mode.

Three months ago when I booked this return flight back to Australia I certainly had figured that the PIEQF would have have been operational. I did consider postponing the flight but it was complicated as it required changing two flights and the expenses associated, I am still working with limited and literally NO funds. It is hoped that the PIEQF system will be switched onto live mode around the 14-16th August.

In retrospect and such is the learning curve and scale of this project I wish I had not been so public in specifying specific dates in which I had intended to run the PIEQF. It has been discussed with the land owner John Varian, and the PIEQF will now run until mid/ late October or early November. The completion date of the PIEQF has now become very open ended.

Wildblue Bandwidth Restriction Lifted

The post I made on the 27th July about my Wildblue Bandwidth Restrictions generated interest within Wildblue Corp itself as a Wildblue marketing and product manger contacted me early last week as a result of this post. I have just had contact this morning (6th August) and the system bandwidth limit has now been reset. This is great news as the Wildblue Internet Satellite system is now set to ready to go live again with the PIEQF web cam and video streaming. What I have too now be aware of is that the web cam will now only post refreshed images every 60-90 seconds to avoid maxing out my 5gb p/mnth upload limit. This is not ideal but it is the constraints the project has to work with.

Thankyou Wildblue for considering my request in having my bandwidth restriction limit lifted. Your support in this unusual circumstance is appreciated.

Chassis Rack Retrofit

Between August 26th and 29th I stripped down the chassis control rack located inside the wooden control bunker at the rear of the trench. Both the SEIS control box and STREAM video streaming box were cleaned as well as SIPS (pull down resistors) were soldered onto the MCC I/O card. (mentioned in previous post) The 24vdc and 5vdc power supplies were tested and mounted. The Vernier Amplifiers were installed. These amplifiers boost the input signal from the Geophones placed in the field around the PIEQF installation which trigger the vertical motion of the table.

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Onsite Software Testing

Geo Homsy arrived onsite in Parkfield on Wednesday 30th August and stayed until Friday 1st August. It was great to have Geo onsite with the PIEQF testing output software.

Geo has written a series of physic based output algorythms which drive the shake table. Essentially the principal behind these algorythms is based on the idea of dropping a stone in a pond and watching the waves propagate outwards from the centre. This is similar to how waves travel through the earth from the point of rupture on a faultline when an earthquake occurs. (Epicentre) The work Geo has done here interfaces with the input software that Stock from the V2 Institute for the Unstable Media has written which interpret the QDDS seismic input feed and the interface between the shake table and the Geophones installed in the field around the installation.

The Geophones are very responsive to the point when the pump valve is open and supplying full delivery to the shake table, feedback between the table and the geophones occur. The geophones are extremely sensitive and are placed approximately 25 - 30ft away from the table. This makes things interesting and is very cool the idea that the mechanical vibration of the table through the excavation is causing this to occur. When the PIEQF is switched onto autonomous mode the local sensing of the table (geophones) will only be triggered with the hydraulic pump supplying minimal delivery to the shake table. This stops feedback occurring.

When an actual seismic event is reported via the QDDS system (Californian Earthquakes) the table will run at full operational delivery. When this occurs software will isolate the DAS08 input card which will Stop feedback occuring between the site and the shake table.Final software testing will take place in Parkfield around the 14th and 15th August. It is envisaged that the PIEQF will go live around the 16th August.

Vertical Motion Stabilization

Just before leaving Parkfield to fly back to Sydney I spent all Saturday 2nd August(and part of the night) and early Sunday morning fabricating a vertical motion stabilization frame underneath the shake table.What was happening was when attaching steel rods to the table the floor pieces were tilting over around 15 degrees as the vertical motion hydraulic actuators have two degrees of movement in how they are connected to the vertical lifting floor pieces.The photographs below detail the solution;

Parkfield Quotes

Since being in Parkfield installing the PIEQF a couple of great quotes come to mind that have been put to me while onsite.

“Can you weld?”, was John Varians answer when I asked him several weeks ago if I could borrow his Miller mobile welder generator unit.

“Why didn’t you make the trench 20ft deep?”, was a question posed by a visitor to the site who lives in Fresno. Could question, maybe next time if the possibility arises in the future.

D.V.Rogers

Sydney

6th August 2008

Wildblue

Last weekend I lost connectivity to PIEQF via the Wildblue Satellite Internet Service. In affect what has happened is that the system exceeded the Wildblue fair usage policy. The PIEQF account with Wildblue has a Download limit of 17gb p/mth and Upload limit of 5gb p/mth. What was not pointed out to me is that the usage is capped and slowed down when usage reaches 70%. OK!

In effect this means that the PIEQF account has a Download limit of 11.9gb and an Upload limit of 3.5gb. Is that fair trading and misleading advertising? Basically what happened is that the PIEQF web cam used up the 70% of the outgoing bandwidth limit. Wildblue then restricted and capped the service.

What was reliably running at Download Speeds between 1000kbps to 1500kbps and Upload Speeds between 100kbps to 250kbps has now been extremely restricted. Most recent speed tests on the 24th July reported Download Speed of 104 kbps and Upload Speed of 19 kbps. Hard to work with that!

I spoke with Wildblue Customer service on two occasions during the week. This didn’t get me anywhere. In fact it was very unhelpful customer service. I explained the situation and what the PIEQF Wildblue service was being used for, this achieved nothing! Tough! In fact the words ‘You Are Being Punished for Exceeding Your Bandwidth Limits’, was given by customer support.

OK. What has baffled me is that the whole time the Wildblue service has been installed I have been unable to access the Wildblue bandwidth meter. I sent an email off to Wildblue weeks ago about this. No reply!

What surprised me was that Wildblue indicated I had used up 14gb of my Download Limit and 4.6gb of my Upload limit. I dont understand how it is possible to even download that much data from the 3rd July of which the roll over month starts.

Now I just have to wait for the month to rollover before the PIEQF Wildblue bandwidth is restrictions are lifted. I have tried speaking with Ed Knudsen, Sales and Marketing Manager of Wildblue in Colorado. At this point without success.

Wildblue is Wild! No PIEQF webcam or video streaming for the time being.

A 56k sonic.net dialup connection will be in place shortly.

PIEQF Bunker

The 6ft L x 4ft W x 6ft H wooden control bunker at the rear of the trench is now the focus of work. I have spent the past two days tidying it up, wiring in the 24vdc and 5vdc power supplies. I have just soldered in a bunch of resistors on the I/O card to prevent the I/O card from floating high on start up. The bunker itself and cable runs are being tidied up. It is small air conditioned room and rather confined to move about and work in. The idea is to get the Control Bunker as comfortable and workable as possible.

One of the video cameras has gone down, 100ft cable run is broken so need to replace it. Next time the PIEQF cameras go back on line the cameras positions will have changed.

Prior setting up camp behind the Parkfield Inn in the Pace Arrow RV I was literally living and working in the dirt. Losing tools in the trench was a daily battle, this made working slow go besides the heat. The new camp which will be home for several months now is pretty comfortable. Now I lose tools in the straw! No internet access though, thats what the control bunker is for.

The RV is rather cool with a big fan running, no air conditioning though which is OK, keeps the power costs down. My 12 inch OSX powerbook does not like the heat so much and it gets Hot, need to source a cooling pad at some point.

PIEQF Project Status

Finishing off the final stages of getting the control bunker and Advantech industrial chassis racks ready. 56K Dial Up connection needs to be configured. Next step is mechanical testing. With all things be equal this shoudn’t take too long, but you never know!. This should happen over the next day or so. Thats the theory anyway.

I have 37 Steel Rod Mounts fabricated and ready to fixed to the table. Still undecided as how many steel rods to mount to start with. At this point considering around 20-20 5/8 steel rods around 12-16ft in length. Mechanical testing will determine what length and thickness of material I use to start with.

A liquid level sensor needs to be installed in the Hydraulic Tank. This is a back up in case a hydraulic line blows which in affect would bleed the hydraulic pump dry.

Then software testing during this week coming. Stock’s work with all the incoming seismic feed and Geophone interface is all ready to be tested. Mr Snows video streaming development is all tried and tested, just a few changes to be made so bandwidth is not chewed up when the Wildblue comes back up to the desired Download and Upload Speeds. Last step Geo Homsy’s output software development is the final phase.

Time has just vanished. Originally the system was planned to be operational from the 28th June, that is almost a month ago and the PIEQF system is still not operational. Not overly concerned, this is the first project I have worked on where I have missed the deadline. I knew this by mid-June this would be the case. There has been very little I can do about this. Its a massive project but starting to look very good if not running a late from my original intention.

John Varian the land owner has agreed for the PIEQF to continue running through until mid/late October, possibly early November if the rains keep away. Which by all accounts is a possiibility that the Califonian drought will continue until December.

Next time constraint I am dealing with is I have to fly back to Sydney, Australia on the Sunday 3rd August, returning to Parkfield on the 13th August. This flight was booked several months ago and back then when the flight was booked I thought I would have had ample time to get this ambitious project up and running. Not the case, large scale earthwork machine performances need more time. Most earthworks are permanent, not this one! Hopefully system will be up before I depart next Sunday week. Seven full days of work to get the final stages complete. If this is the case I will be leaving the system unattended. In theory that should work, thats the theory anyway…

PIEQF is an Open project, with an Open start date, and an Open finish date!

D.V.Rogers
26th July 2008

PIEQF Stills / 23rd July 2008

I left the PIEQF site in Parkfield for the first time since the excavation took place on the 9th June. Besides the odd night at Christina McPhee’s bed and breakfast in Atascerdero, which is always a treat with a hot shower to boot.

Friday 18th June I drove out of Parkfield late in the afternoon collecting some steel 4″ x 3″ rod mounts from PRW Steel in Paso Robles before heading onto Mark Lottor’s house in Menlo Park, stayed the night…

Connectivity to the site in Parkfield went down at 10.46am Saturday morning. Bummer. Strange how, first time I leave site for any length of time and the Wildblue service goes down.

Into San Francisco for Saturday night and evening at the Box Shop with the Flaming Lotus Girls as they demonstrated three pods of their “Mutopia” project which will be seen at Burning Man this August.

Sunday afternoon / evening was spent on the East Bay at the Todd Blair Gear Wall Fundraiser. Todd Blair suffered a serious brain trauma while packing up the most recent SRL show in Amsterdam last September. Please donate and help out Todd Blair with his extensive recovery program. There are various ways to donate, please check out toddnow.org on how to do so.

Early Monday morning 21st July was spent at the Box Shop fabricating 30 rod mounts for the installation here in Parkfield. Thanks Charlie Gadeken.

Left San Francisco around 7pm, headed for Atascadero and Christina McPhees house for a final hot shower for a while. Had a tire blow out 20 miles south of San Miguel. That was fun, had no wheel brace (tire iron) but improvised with a few tools I had with me. Late meal with Christina, Terry and Karl who was visiting from Kansas City.

Lazy morning, arrived back in Parkfield mid afternoon to work out why connectivity has gone down. It looks like I have exceeded my bandwidth limit.. Ah shit. The trials and tribulation of working with minimal resources….

Check out another great video edits Christina McPhee has posted on youtube.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qauV3rXiQOI