Seismic See-Saw was part of the Data Pipe Dreams pavilion a temporary exhibition space to showcase research work during the Edinburgh Art Festival, during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
We invited visitors to donate £1 of their own money into a physical smart contract. The conditions of this contract were, the money would be donated to Oxfam’s emergency relief fund if during the 5 minute contract there was an earthquake anywhere in the world of any magnitude.
At the end of each smart contract donors could check to see if there had actually been an earthquake which triggered their money to be donated. All the donations have been donated to Oxfam and a receipt collected. The publishing of this loop hopes to provide those who donated money, a means for trusting the whole system.
£62 was collected during the festival, which equated to around 1% of visitors to the pavilion making a donation. Of course this doesn't take into account the number of potential donors whose contracts were not triggered by the occurrence of an earthquake.
Seismic See-Saw will now be used as a starting point for workshops which will inform design as we take it forward.
