soundQuake is an interactive visual and acoustic representation of Bay Area earthquake data from 1973 – present day. Every time an earthquake occurs in a given time range, a white 3D rectangle will rise from the mapped epicenter and produce the sound of a banjo chord. The magnitude of the earthquake will impact the volume of the banjo sound, as well as the height of the rectangular protrusion. Multiple earthquakes in close proximity will generate a confluence of seismic activity increasing the region’s overall sound and visual impact.

soundQuake was one of the winning pieces created at Art Hack Weekend SF, hosted by Gray Area Foundation for the Arts and The Creator’s Project. It was installed at the The Creator’s Project SF festival in March of 2012, and at Nightlife at the California Academy of Sciences.

The piece uses WebGL (ThreeJS), the Web Audio API, NodeJS (Express), Google Fusion Tables, and the USGS Earthquake Database. [Source Code]