This student project pulls earthquake data from the US Geological Service to make a skirt “rumble” in response to real-time earthquakes. Erin Lewis programmed this using arduino.

Her blog post breaking down her idea is here:
http://blog.ocad.ca/wordpress/gdes3b44-fw2010-01/2011/03/earthquake-skirt-the-glamorization-of-disaster/

Her website with other projects is here:
http://www.erinlewis.ca/Home.html

A video of a knit canoe that uses fiber optics to display real-time wind patterns on Lake Ontario is here: