Artist Statement

Red oak, GPS, Stepper Motors, wires, microcontroller, Magnetometer, batteries, suitcase (Harriet Horowitz & Richard Rivkin)

Compass for mountains and water is a working compass housed within a suitcase that points to the closest inland body of water and closest mountain. It uses GPS, two stepper motors, a digital compass, and a microcontroller to direct two
laser-etched pointers. A list of coordinates of the bodies of water and mountains are hardcoded into the microcontroller. The GPS cross-references your current location with the stored ones and turns each motor to point in the appropriate direction
of the closest mountain and body of water.

• Jacob Rivkin is an interdisciplinary artist and curator. His work addresses the way we experience landscape through combining new technology, natural materials, and traditional methods of making. In 2014, he was an artist-in-residence at the Hacktory in Philadelphia, PA and in 2008 he was awarded a Fulbright Student Grant. He is based in Philadelphia, PA.

Text with images (PDF) p. 44-45