Not many people take time out of their day to realise the immense crisis our planet is facing regarding plastic pollution. Message in a Bottle visualises a dataset of real waves from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The moving sculpture hopes to open up a dialogue and send a message to encourage people to think twice about consuming single use plastic items.

Message in a Bottle takes real data that has been collected from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data buoy North of Hawaii, where the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located. The data recorded includes sea temperature, wind speed and wave heights. Using physical computing components, the wave heights are mapped to 13 motors that distribute the bottles the way the waves would.

This installation is a continuation of Kerrie's ongoing research of weather patterns and ocean pollution.

Kerrie O'Leary is a multimedia-artist currently working in Howth, Dublin. Her work is interested in turning complex data sets into simple visualizations that uncover previously unseen connections and patterns. This year she has focused on data relating to the sea, global warming and ocean pollution. The data driven work Kerrie produces is influenced by her undergraduate degree in Management Science and Information Systems. Blurring the lines between spreadsheets and creativity with Processing, Arduino and openFrameworks she aims to make artworks that surprise and excite.