Water Data Fountain Chime

The Water Data Fountain Chime is a musical fountain built for the large scale dance installation e's of water, held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Summer 2007. It's tones and sequences trigger when a drop of water falls into each of the fish bowls that surround the dancer. The musical quality of the tones is determined by water quality readings from Lake Michigan, which is visible from the Kenilworth Building, where the installation was mounted.

Each fish bowl in the Water Data Fountain Chime contains a small waterproof microphone which amplifies the water drops. If a large enough drop makes a loud enough "plop!" the tones of the sequence are triggered by the computer connected to the microphones. The computer takes into account the positive or negative value of water quality readings coming into it to determine how uplifting or dour to make the sounds.