David Allan Rueter

06-Invisible_Landmarks from David Rueter on Vimeo.

Dimensions variable
2008
Audio samples, stereo amplifier, speakers and subwoofer, flashlight, aerial photograph enclosed in acrylic sheet, computer, infrared camera, custom software, pollution geodata

This work was installed at the Work * Ann Arbor Gallery for the show (re)Mapping. Viewers enter a dark room, where they may shine a flashlight (which hangs from the ceiling) on a printed aerial photograph mosaic of the heavily polluted Gary, Indiana industrial region. Custom software, running on a computer hidden from view, uses an infrared camera to track the position of the flashlight beam on the photograph. Using pollution geodata collected from multiple government sources, as well as sound samples that represent different types of pollution, the software generates a real-time audio representation of pollution sources located within the illuminated area of the aerial photograph. Generated sounds range from quiet and intricate to loud and jarring.

Categories of data represented by the sound map:

* Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Sites
* Major Polluters (NPDES Major)
* Leaking Underground Storage Tanks (LUST)
* Brownfields
* Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) Sites
* Slag Dumps
* Point Discharge (PD) Locations