Local Barometer

The Local Barometer is a system of devices that reveals the socio-cultural texture around the home by displaying locally produced online information depending on local weather conditions. Built for a home in a diverse and densely populated section of North London, the system’s point of control is an outside weather station that directs web-scraping software to collect fragments of images and text — drawn (in 2007) from the loot.com classified ad site – that originate upwind from the home. This content is displayed on a series of small display devices designed to be appropriate for various locations in the home: an upright structure for the mantelpiece, an L-shaped structure that hangs over the edge of a bookshelf, another that hangs on a rail in the kitchen and one that protrudes from an electrical wall-socket. The effect is that succinct content evocative of local detail is blown by the wind through the home.

Click here for a conference paper about the project.

Date: 2007

A photograph of a Local Barometer device on a shelf in the home of a participant
A photograph of a Local Barometer hanging on a kitchen rack in the home of a participant
A photograph of a disassembled Local Barometer device showing a structurally modified Nokia phone inside the card housing
A photograph of a Local Barometer next to a cable TV box in the home of a participant
A photograph of a wind speed and direction sensor (which drives the Local Barometer system) in the participant's garden