Description

Strewn Fields is a data-visualization of meteorite impact data etched into stone. Using data from four different locations on the Earth, my custom algorithms created files specific for a high-pressure waterjet cutting machine. I used this digital fabrication tool to mar the stone in a reflection of kinetic energy transposed into physical objects.

When a large asteroid enters the earths atmosphere, it does so at high velocity of approximately 30,000km/hour. Before impact, it breaks up into thousands of small fragments, which are meteorites. Usually when they hit our planet in the ocean or at remote locations.

Only recently have scientists been able to use GPS technology to geolocate the spread patterns, called Strewn Fields.

Using this data, along with the mass of the meteorites, I have transposed the patterns using custom algorithms into 2D space and the programmed the waterjet machine — a high-pressure CNC water-cutting device to etch the data into stone.

The waterjet reflects the kinetic energy of the asteroid and the stone is that of the Earth. I selected each stone to match the type of rock found at that impact site on Earth.