Vibrascapes

updated June 12, 2022

vibrascapes (vibrational landscapes) are imprints of vibrations registered by specialized technological sensors and produced by specific objects, physical entities, or natural phenomena. A vertical and horizontal axis seismograph and a seismo-acoustic sensor, the latter able to detect both vertical motion seismicity (geosphere) and infrasonic wave signals (atmosphere), serve as technoscientific instruments in the creation of the vibration mappings. Each vibrascape is composed of two elements: the large-scale detail-plot and a smaller overview-plot, the latter of which serves as an appendix to the much larger and more prominent former. The dominant abstract colour field of the frequency detail draws the initial gaze and intentionally blurs the line between artistic and technical image. Its polychromous abstraction detaches the vibrational landscape from its technoscientific context and provides space for an initial encounter with the otherwise invisible environmental trace. The overview-plot firmly situates the isolated event within an extensive dual mapping that translates vibrations — seismic or infrasonic — into a spectrogram (in Hz) and an oscillogram of either air pressure (in Pa) or velocity (in m/s), neatly framed by numerical scales (y-axis) and a time scale (x-axis). Each two-component vibrascape elicits aesthetic experience and scientific comprehension.