I am interested in civic engagement around water quality sensing. How can the public better understand and relate to water quality data? The Babbling Brook is prototype for a networked sensing flower that grows out of a body of water and constantly jokes about the water quality that it is sensing to whoever will listen. Ideally there would be a live webcam trained on the flower so that people could listen in over the Internet as well. The problem that it solves is around engagement and interpretation of civic data. We are seeing data unlocked like never before, but there is still the problem of how we analyze, interpret and make use of that data. The Babbling Brook is like a weird guide in this space - helping to interpret and engage people around data that really matters to their everyday lives.

1. The
Babbling
Brook
Catherine D’Ignazio
Research Assistant
MIT Center for Civic Media
dignazio@mit.edu

3. Photography and
research captured by
me + the neighborhood

4. Research Question
•
Could creating playful, highly mediated,
public speech interfaces with water bodies help us
imagine the tremendous agency and import that
they have for our everyday lives?

5. Goals
•
Get to know the creek in my backyard via
photography, observation, sensing, and talking to
neighbors
•
Collect water quality sensor data from the creek
and create a public way (twitter) to dialogue with
the creek in-situ and on the Internet
•
Create an online repository with visualizations to
explore the sensor data and support learning

6. Prior Work & Inspiration

7. Political/Hydrological by Lauren Rosenthal, 2006

8. Amphibious Architecture by Natalie Jeremijenko & colleagues

9. The Singing Bush and the Three Amigos (1986)

10. The project has 2 sites
1. At the Creek: Neighbors see an oddly
shaped, unnatural red thing sticking out of
the water that talks constantly in “twitter
language” and tells bad jokes
2. Online: Visitors see the creek’s live twitter
feed, hear its tweeting updates as they
happen and explore the sensor data both
live and over time

12. Online

13. Interactive visualizations of sensor data
that pan and zoom across time
(seconds to seasonal)
@kanarinka I seem to be on the up
and up, almost 14 inches today!

14. Physical Object
+
+

19. Measurements
BUILT-IN
•
Light Levels - Intersil ISL29023 high dynamic range ambient light
sensor
•
•
Time of Day - Real-time clock
Air Temperature - Sensirion SHT21 high-resolution temperature/
humidity sensor
ADD-ON
•
•
Real-time Sound - Include the optional differential mic
•
Ph Levels - Silver chloride pH Sensor kit from Atlas Scientific/
SparkFun + the Ph Circuit
•
Water Level Sensor - eTape Liquid Level Sensor (24" version) from
Milton Tech
Water Temperature -10K Precision Epoxy Thermistor - 3950 NTC
from adafruit

21. System Architecture

23. Next Steps
•
•
Keep working on my own little creek
•
Is this the right thing for a particular context?
Explore Babbling Brook at Tidmarsh, on the Mystic
River.
•
How to integrate with education and outreach
efforts?
Gather information; Meet people; learn more
about water ecology & measurement; Do my
entirely unrelated thesis project.

24. Jokes Platform for
Environmental Data?
FUNNY!!
if water temperature is
above X and depth is
below Y then say this
joke:
on-site
observation
"Knock Knock, Who's
There? X Degrees. X
Degrees who? NotReally-Funny Punchline!!"
+
=
web-based jokes platform
networked sensors
+
+
Data Analysis & Comedy workshops
talking flower
or other weirdness

25. Thanks