Chico MacMurtrie / Amorphic Robot Works

 

The Organograph Organograph's Orbs Organograph's Terrarium Sphere Organograph's Orbs Organograph's Orbs Organograph's Orbs Organograph's Orbs Organograph's Orbs Organograph's Orbs Organograph's Timetrail Organograph stair structure One path up. The Vapor Orb Two stairs down. Solar power Organograph at night
The Organograph in Action.
Large translucent orbs

The Organograph's Orb System: A series of translucent globes containing liquids, which represent the proportions of various aspects of the Earth's current carbon cycle. More information on this aspect of the structure can be found by clicking on one of the corresponding thumbnails on the right.
Schematic: ARW

Bird's eye view of the Organograph's lTime Trail.

The Organograph Time Trail. A bird's eye view of the sculpture, showing the spiral path the organism travels, ending in the year 2112. As the Organograph moves it deposits a variable-width path of glassified garbage representing the changing amount and type of pollution we have introduced to the Earth.
Schematic: ARW

Three stairways of the Organograph.

The helical structure of the Organograph's spiral staircases. More information on this aspect of the structure can be found by clicking on one of the corresponding thumbnails on the right.
Schematic: ARW

The Organograph at night.

The Organograph at night. The petals, with their solar panel arrays, retracted.
Schematic: ARW

Organograph: Narrative

The Organograph is one of three finalist projects in San José's Climate Clock Initiative.

From the San José Climate Clock website:
"The Climate Clock will be a work of landmark art that incorporates Silicon Valley’s measurement and data management technologies to help people understand climate change while encouraging them to continue reducing their carbon footprint on planet Earth.

"The first implementation of the project will be in San José, but from the start, the goal is to establish a global program that will encourage and support the creation and installation of other climate clocks in communities and cities throughout the world."

Our Proposal

The Organograph is an ever-changing, participatory sculpture that invites the public to observe and respond to the processes of climate change. Visually and physically inviting, the work functions as a captivating civic beacon as well as a flexible instrument of scientific measurement, public education, and individual experience. The total mechanism of the sculpture responds to and provides a window into worldwide climate data. A spectacular clock-like system of interconnecting exhibit orbs, liquid flows, and mechanical movement illustrates the dynamic equilibrium of energy and mass flow in the biosphere.

The entire sculpture moves two meters per year along a spiral trench, leaving in its wake a living garden and a trail paved with archival culture bricks made of glassified garbage. The width of the trail forms a graph, representing the historical levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The future is represented by a curving reflecting pool.

In the Organograph's Terrarium Sphere, plants are continually seeded, nourished by compost carried up by visitors, and rotated out toward the perimeter. Each day at noon, a plant travels down a chute from this Spiral Incubator and is replanted in the Time Trail Garden. The atmosphere inside the incubator—and hence the health of the exterior Garden—fluctuates in response to global atmospheric conditions.

Visitors enter the Organograph via a single stairway, representing the rise of industrialization as well as the progression of the greenhouse effect. At the top, in the humid Vapor Orb, visitors may choose to descend by way of one of two stairs: the oil dependent future, or the sustainable future.

This journey of discovery is guided by the interactive Learning Atom. These user-specific tokens, using RFID technology, connect to a live database that is continually updated in collaboration with scientific research institutions, and present each visitor a unique interactive audiovisual experience.

The sun is the sole energy source for the project. Photovoltaic arrays and solar thermal collectors are clustered along the three great unfolding sculptural petals that dramatically open each morning and close each night.

More on the San José Climate Clock project and information on the other finalist's entries can be found on this site.