More coal is exported from the port of Newcastle than any other port in the world. When this coal is consumed in the power stations and steel mills of Asia it contributes around 1% of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases. While we often talk of the economic benefits of these exports to the region, the state and the nation, there is no corresponding conversation about the consequences on climate change and the planet or the local ramifications when the world inevitably turns away from coal. That side of the equation is invisible in our collective conscience.

Signal Station is a data-driven kinetic sculpture that makes visible the shipping movements of Newcastle. Nine pendulums driven by electric fans are activated by internet data on the presence of a ship at one of the nine coal loading berths of the port of Newcastle.

The work continues the theme of invisible shipping movements from the photographic series One Percent.

Exhibition history:

• Updated and exhibited at the Newcastle Art Gallery A Dirty Business exhibition in 2016.
• Awarded the 2014 Annual Student Art Prize, UoN Services Ltd Travelling Scholarship at the student Open show, Watt Space
• Awarded an Honourable Mention at the 2014 Friends of the University Acquisitive art prize at the Newcastle University Gallery

Installed at Newcastle Art Gallery, 2016.

Installed for the Friends of the University Art prize at the University of Newcastle Art Gallery.

Installed for the 2014 Student Art Prize at Watt Space Gallery.