Earth Computing

Abstract

Under the banner of "Earth Computing," the walkingtools.net laboratory (UNIFESP/UCSD) is exploring how data extracted from landscapes (using tools such as Geographic Information Systems) may return to those landscapes in a literal way: through distributed computing and the property of "data locality" inherent in contemporary compute platforms such as Hadoop. Indeed, not only through data locality, but through solar power and the literal placement of compute power in the landscape itself, all as a way to explore new options for land art and performance art. In this workshop students will examine the construction of a solar powered compute station based on the Raspberry Pi platform. The focus will be on setting up and installing the hardware elements, as well as issues related to network connectivity and systems administration of a remote sensor/compute system. Finally, the workshop participants will imagine potential uses for and form critiques of discrete, remote computation with "earth stations."