Alistair McClymont, Everything we are capable of seeing

McClymont’s practice incorporates a range of materials and practices that include sculpture, photography and video. His most recent works reproduce natural phenomena as a means of exploring scientific and philosophical ideas. The means of production and installation of the work often reveals the science behind it. At the same time, it acknowledges that there is something inherently unknowable and uncontrollable about the way in which naturally or artificially induced phenomena behave that is capable of inducing awe and wonder. Solo Exhibition at Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, US

Of Machines Learning to See Lemon

This book chapter explores the connections between human perception and machine perception trough the medium of physical objects that all refer in some way to the visual and physical qualities of lemon. We draw a parallel between still life paintings of lemons and how value is signified in them and computer vision systems that tend to have hidden or invisible value systems inherent in the data that they depend on

Upper crustal evolution across the Juan de Fuca ridge flanks

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 9 (2008): Q09006, doi:10.1029/2008GC002085.Recent P wave velocity compilations of the oceanic crust indicate that the velocity of the uppermost layer 2A doubles or reaches ∼4.3 km/s found in mature crust in <10 Ma after crustal formation. This velocity change is commonly attributed to precipitation of low-temperature alteration minerals within the extrusive rocks associated with ridge-flank hydrothermal circulation. Sediment blanketing, acting as a thermal insulator, has been proposed to further accelerate layer 2A evolution by enhancing mineral precipitation. We carried out 1-D traveltime modeling on common midpoint supergathers from our 2002 Juan de Fuca ridge multichannel seismic data to determine upper crustal structure at ∼3 km intervals along 300 km long transects crossing the Endeavor, Northern Symmetric, and Cleft ridge segments. Our results show a regional correlation between upper crustal velocity and crustal age. The measured velocity increase with crustal age is not uniform across the investigated ridge flanks. For the ridge flanks blanketed with a sealing sedimentary cover, the velocity increase is double that observed on the sparsely and discontinuously sedimented flanks (∼60% increase versus ∼28%) over the same crustal age range of 5–9 Ma. Extrapolation of velocity-age gradients indicates that layer 2A velocity reaches 4.3 km/s by ∼8 Ma on the sediment blanketed flanks compared to ∼16 Ma on the flanks with thin and discontinuous sediment cover. The computed thickness gradients show that layer 2A does not thin and disappear in the Juan de Fuca region with increasing crustal age or sediment blanketing but persists as a relatively low seismic velocity layer capping the deeper oceanic crust. However, layer 2A on the fully sedimented ridge-flank sections is on average thinner than on the sparsely and discontinuously sedimented flanks (330 ± 80 versus 430 ± 80 m). The change in thickness occurs over a 10–20 km distance coincident with the onset of sediment burial. Our results also suggest that propagator wakes can have atypical layer 2A thickness and velocity. Impact of propagator wakes is evident in the chemical signature of the fluids sampled by ODP drill holes along the east Endeavor transect, providing further indication that these crustal discontinuities may be sites of localized fluid flow and alteration.This research was supported by National Science Foundation grants OCE-00-02488, OCE-00-02551, and OCE-00- 02600

Variable crustal structure along the Juan de Fuca Ridge : influence of on-axis hot spots and absolute plate motions

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 9 (2008): Q08001, doi:10.1029/2007GC001922.Multichannel seismic and bathymetric data from the Juan de Fuca Ridge (JDFR) provide constraints on axial and ridge flank structure for the past 4–8 Ma within three spreading corridors crossing Cleft, Northern Symmetric, and Endeavour segments. Along-axis data reveal south-to-north gradients in seafloor relief and presence and depth of the crustal magma lens, which indicate a warmer axial regime to the south, both on a regional scale and within individual segments. For young crust, cross-axis lines reveal differences between segments in Moho two-way traveltimes of 200–300 ms which indicate 0.5–1 km thicker crust at Endeavour and Cleft compared to Northern Symmetric. Moho traveltime anomalies extend beyond the 5–15 km wide axial high and coincide with distinct plateaus, 32 and 40 km wide and 200–400 m high, found at both segments. On older crust, Moho traveltimes are similar for all three segments (∼2100 ± 100 ms), indicating little difference in average crustal production prior to ∼0.6 and 0.7 Ma. The presence of broad axis-centered bathymetric plateau with thickened crust at Cleft and Endeavour segments is attributed to recent initiation of ridge axis-centered melt anomalies associated with the Cobb hot spot and the Heckle melt anomaly. Increased melt supply at Cleft segment upon initiation of Axial Volcano and southward propagation of Endeavour segment during the Brunhes point to rapid southward directed along-axis channeling of melt anomalies linked to these hot spots. Preferential southward flow of the Cobb and Heckle melt anomalies and the regional-scale south-to-north gradients in ridge structure along the JDFR may reflect influence of the northwesterly absolute motion of the ridge axis on subaxial melt distribution.This work was supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants OCE00-02488 to S.M.C., OCE06-48303 to S.M.C. and M.R.N., OCE-0648923 to J.P.C., and OCE00-02600 to G.M.K. and A.J.H

STUK, Artefact Festival, Belgium

Group exhibition at STUK, Leuven, Belgium James Turrell (US), Paolo di Trapani & Coelux (IT), Ief Spincemaille (BE), Frederic Geurts (BE), Rob Sweere (NL), Berndnaut Smilde (NL), Alistair McClymont (UK), Charlotte Charbonnel (FR), Vincent & Lawrence Malstaf (BE – BE/NO), Bilal Bahir (IQ/BE), Sjoerd Knibbeler (NL), Javier Pérez (ES), Marije Baalman (NL), Amy Balkin (US), James Bridle (UK), The Center for Genomic Gastronomy (US/NO/IE) & Nicola Twilley (US/UK) Alicia Framis (ES), Laurent Grasso (FR), Ruben Pater (NL), Forensic Architecture (UK), Super ux (UK/IN), Wesley Goatley & Georgina Voss (UK), Bigert & Bergström (SE) and Liam Young (AU

Newspaper Data Visualisation Workshop, Part 2

In partnership with the British Library, we organised and conducted two trial workshops in newspaper data visualisation.  This is the second of the two workshops. Our primary goal in making more historical newspaper data available was to assist academic, as well as general researchers, we want to see where the creative impulse may take us. It could lead to different kinds of newspapers being digitised, or derived data being made in forms most suitable for creative inspiration

Newspaper Data Visualisation Workshop, Part 1

Collaboration between the British Library and London College of Communication to test paper prototyping and data visualisation methods as a means to analyse newspaper content in the archive collection. We gathered historians, general library users with a passing interest in newspapers and newspaper data, artists, and designers together and asked them to take part in a workshop where they would ‘visualise’ a newspaper in an innovative way, using art materials rather than computer software

A multiproxy approach to long-term herbivore grazing dynamics in peatlands based on pollen, coprophilous fungi and faecal biomarkers

Herbivory plays a significant role in regulating many contemporary terrestrial plant ecosystems, but remains an imperfectly understood component of past ecosystem dynamics because the diagnostic capability of methods is still being tested and refined. To understand the efficacy of a multiproxy approach, we compare the sensitivity of pollen and coprophilous fungal spores (CFS) to changes in grazing intensity over the last 100–150 years in six peat cores from three UK upland areas, and apply faecal lipid biomarkers to two of the cores, using agricultural census data to calculate an independent record of herbivore density. Rising sheep density adversely affected moorland ecology over the last century, which therefore provides a suitable period to test the sensitivity of these proxies. In particular, we assess whether CFS can be used to track variations in large herbivore densities over time, since this has received less attention than their ability to identify high grazing levels. At selected sites, we test whether faecal lipid biomarkers can be used to identify which herbivore species were present. Our results highlight the differential sensitivity of each proxy, demonstrating on peat- and moorlands (i) that peak CFS abundance is a more consistent indicator of ecologically influential (high) herbivore levels than variations in animal density through time; (ii) when recorded with high CFS values, the decline or disappearance of grazing-tolerant pollen taxa is a reliable indicator of high herbivory; and (iii) at low herbivore densities, faecal lipid biomarkers are not an effective indicator of herbivore presence or identity. Quantitative reconstructions of past herbivory and identifying grazer species therefore remain challenging. However, our findings indicate that pollen and CFS provide complementary evidence for high intensity grazing, and emphasise that studies using CFS should aim to define ‘high’ herbivore levels in terms of the grazing sensitivity of the ecosystem, rather than relative animal abundance