The Intimate Earthquake Archive brings together research done by artist Sissel Marie Tonn with two different modes of ”storing” information of man-made earthquakes.
For the last 32 years the north of The Netherlands has experienced man-made earthquakes due to gas extraction in the largest field for natural gas in Europe, the Groningen Gas Field. The work The Intimate Earthquake Archive brings together research done by artist Sissel Marie Tonn with two different modes of ”storing” information of man-made earthquakes: The seismic activity of the earthquakes as meticulously recorded and annotated in the immense digital data bank of the Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI); and the personal stories of people living in Groningen, who can provide precise descriptions of feeling this seismic activity passing through their bodies to anyone willing to listen. Some of the people living with these man-made earthquakes even claim to wake up in their beds, before they feel the tremors across the earth.
Project credits / Acknowledgements:
Hardware design/Interaction: Marije Baalman & Jonathan Reus, Carsten Tonn-Petersen
Vest design: Gino Anthonisse and Christa van der Meer
Graphic Design: Márton Kabai
Supported by:
Theodora Niemeijer Fund, TNO – Innovation for Life, KNMI – Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute, Augmented Instruments Laboratory – Queen Mary University, UK, Stroom Den Haag, Creative Industries Fund NL
The Intimate Earthquake earned an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica 2020.