locus of ınstabılıty (2026)
Research Based Kinetic Installation
Catalyst Funkhaus, Berlin, Germany
Project Manager & Creative Technologist: Naz Yigiter
Interaction Designer & Technical Artist: Shareen Rai
Spatial Designer & Sound Team Liaison: Elifsu Bilici
Documentation: Cem Kocaoglu
Sound Designer: Lakshman Mohan
Advisors: Prof. Emily Smith, Basel Naouri
Locus of Instability is an ongoing research-based media installation that investigates how long-term planetary motion intersects with collective human presence. The project uses simulated seismic data as a generative force to construct a spatial system where instability is not treated as an exception, but as a continuous condition to be inhabited.
The work emerged from an initial interest in earthquakes as a natural phenomenon that exceeds the scale of individual experience. Rather than approaching seismic activity as a series of isolated events, the project focuses on continuity, accumulation, and pressure over time. This shift informed both the conceptual framework and the technical structure of the installation, leading to the development of a system that prioritizes duration, repetition, and slow transformation.
Conceptual Framework
At the center of the installation is a physical pendulum that functions as a four-dimensional seismograph. Driven by a simulated dataset informed by decades of global seismic activity, the pendulum traces an ongoing, autonomous movement. Its motion acts as a monumental temporal axis, emphasizing geological time as something persistent.
Surrounding the pendulum is a generative visual environment developed in TouchDesigner. The visuals translate seismic pressure into distortion, turbulence, and gradual reconfiguration.
From Initial Idea to System Design
The project began as a broad inquiry into how natural forces shape collective memory and lived environments. Early research focused on seismic data sources, tectonic movement, and the physical behavior of pendulums. Initial sketches explored literal mappings of earthquakes, but these approaches were later abandoned in favor of abstraction and simulation.
As the project developed, the focus shifted toward building a system rather than illustrating data. Seismic parameters such as magnitude, depth, latitude, and longitude were treated as independent numerical inputs rather than geographic descriptors. These values were compressed into a four-channel force system, driving electromagnets positioned around the pendulum. This decision allowed the pendulum to operate as a dynamic object shaped by multiple dimensions of data without attempting to represent specific locations or events.
In parallel, visual experiments tested how pressure, accumulation, and release could be expressed through generative fields. Through iteration, the visuals evolved into a responsive surface that reflects instability as an ongoing state rather than a moment of rupture.
Technical Approach
The installation is built around a modular technical setup:
Seismic data is sourced from the USGS Earthquake Catalog and processed as CSV files.
Data is normalized and temporally manipulated within TouchDesigner to create a simulated timeline rather than a direct playback.
Four data streams are mapped to four electromagnets controlling the pendulum’s movement.
Longitude and latitude of running data is visualized on a map and aligned with a data-interactive displacement field visual.
Sound is spatialized and informed by the same data environment, reinforcing the sense of scale and continuity.
The system is intentionally designed to avoid real-time control or direct feedback. Interaction operates through duration and accumulation rather than immediate cause-and-effect.
