The Parkfield Interventional EQ Fieldwork

D. V. Rogers, an Australian artist, brought this project to Parkfield in collaboration with Andy Michael, an American seismologist. It was a platform of actuators that were programmed to move a set of metal slats, topped with steel wands, in response to live seismic signals from the whole state of California, making Parkfield a "virtual epicenter" and a spot where the viewer could sense the energy in the entire lithospheric volume of California. It also had a set of geophones embedded around it, allowing visitors to interact with the work by stamping the ground.

I visited the work on October 23. It moved in a constant slow rocking motion accompanied by the low whine of its motor, reminding me of a small oil well at work. Seismic signals would rouse the slats to a rippling clatter, and the wands would wave back and forth with the ripples until the signal died away and the apparatus resumed its rocking. The village around the site went about its morning business as the Earth beneath went about its. Without the machine, the seismic vibrations would be insensible except when a significant earthquake struck nearby. The PIEQF was a gentle robotic reminder of the inexorable, unhurried tectonism that built and continues to tinker with this landscape—a real piece of Earth Art.

The PIEQF's Web site is at pieqf.allshookup.org.