You may have noticed we're sorta fond of data vizualisation at Protein. And nothing pleases us more than when someone takes it to the next level. Step forward digital art students Luke Mears and Jay McCalla who have created a liquid-magnetic visualisation tool for global tectonic activity!

Earthquake data is a rich source of real time data, and their project, Ferroseismic, physically expresses this data through magnetic liquid. The liquid, aka ferrofluid, is suspended in small water containers, each one representing a separate quadrant of the Earth. Beneath each container is a motor with a single magnet attached. The motors map the activity of real time earthquake RSS feeds, spinning with greater intensity when seismic activity spikes.

Breaking data-viz into the tangible realm has been employed to great artistic effect in the past. But maintaining a genuinely informative link to the texture of the data being mapped is what sets proper data-viz apart from purely artistic articulations. Ferroseismic manages to achieve both; the fluttering ferrofluid being simultaneously mesmerising and indicative of the shifting plates of the globe. More of this please!