RESPONSIVE LANDSCAPES: ANALOG SALTWATER SENSING

The project took cues from kinetic machines of the Victorian era that put in motion an elaborate sequence of events for a sometimes comical end result. The machine we made uses properties of open and charged electric circuits interacting with saltwater to make the presence of salt visible in an array of LED lights. Stripped and charged wires hang from a scaffold above a tank. The tank fills with water over a sedimented landscape, and dissolves scattered salt blocks. The resulting swirls of saltwater diffuse through the sediment and act as a conductor, closing the circuit between the positive charge of the wire and the negative charge of a copper node pinned to the landform. This allows electricity to flow through the circuit, lighting up the LED in the particular location where the wire hangs and the saltwater accumulates. The resulting pattern of light becomes a map that indicates saltwater concentrations.