American artist Janet Echelman has suspended a billowing woven sculpture based on data captured from the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami above London's busy Oxford Circus junction (+ slideshow).

Echelman's 1.8 installation is held up between the four buildings on the corners of the crossroads, where it is illuminated at night.
It is one of several lighting-based artworks to be installed across the UK capital for the Lumiere London event, which kicks off today.

The design is similar to Echelman's previous aerial sculptures, like the giant piece that floated above a park in Boston last summer.

Related story: Dennis Parren installs illuminated tower at Lowlands music festival

Created specifically for its London location, the new 1.8 artwork is based on the seismic disaster that struck Japan in 2011. The title of the installation is based on the number of microseconds that the day of the earthquake was shortened by.

"You expect a tsunami or earthquake to have a physical impact on water, but you don't expect it to have an impact on time and the rotation of the Earth being shifted," Echelman told Dezeen.
Its shape was created using data of recorded wave heights as the resulting tsunami rippled across the Pacific Ocean.

Echelman used Autodesk computer design software to transform the data into a three-dimensional model, made up of an intricate mesh of diamond shapes.
This was then recreated with custom polyethylene fibres that are knotted...