When architecture is enmeshed with art, the outcomes are very often a delightful melody of functionalism and aesthetic appeal. Picture over 500 freely rotating wind direction indicators, similar to arrows, with each one moving gracefully in gales or gusts. A wall that can record wind.
A power plant that encapsulates latent energy effortlessly
There are arid regions of the world where winds can reach up to 100 mph, although this is rare. When this energy is captured and stored, this natural resource becomes among the most valuable and sustainable kinds of energy there is. Set in stainless steel and aluminum, the arrows on this towering wall provide data on the erratic and intricate nature of wind, how air can curl or dip, for instance.
Designers use the wind to dictate the design of creations like San Francisco’s Windswept, which is located at the Randall Museum. Surfaces that can shift in the breeze are not unheard of, and machines that burst into life as soon as the wind does.
The LAGI Field Guide to Renewable Energy Technologies (second edition) says that successful renewable public art is found at the intersection of technology, ecology, and art. A functional expression where, just like Windswept, the aspects of a machine that provide an aesthetic appeal are sensors or instruments that can detect and harness wind flow. Windswept is yet to produce electricity, but the thinking is that it one day will do just that.
What makes Windswept a unique machine that can record wind?
Windswept’s arrows capture the motion of wind, each one like a dancer in a stage production, displaying a particular part of the elegant choreography, but this dance potentially has more of a purpose to it than a mere display of creative beauty. Each one of those arrows could be viewed as a micro-generator able to gather amounts of kinetic energy. With over 500 of these spinning needles, powered by the wind, this installation is a fully prepped power plant.
Reports suggest funding issues in seeing this project attain or demonstrate its full capabilities. Windswept sits poised between the worlds of art and utility. There is how striking it looks with hundreds of arrows dancing in the wind, but it does raise the question as to how significant the power garnered would be if all those arrows in the wind yielded energy, and how it could be used to bolster the power supply.
Windswept, a wind machine that straddles two worlds
Even without any electricity generated, these arrows are dainty wind sensors that provide readings of the wind. The kind of knowledge this offers would be of importance to architects and city planners, for example. It is already a scientific instrument that straddles ideals of art and heavy industry.
The wind is among the most abundant streams of energy, and it is everywhere. The challenge is capturing it and using it to better society. These arrows show how the wind is always around us, even though you can’t see it. Windswept almost makes the wall upon which it is mounted breathe. Getting this machine to a point where it can produce electricity will do wonders for San Francisco, and more creations of this nature would surely be envisaged and created.
If Windswept were to be scaled or reimagined as a pioneering piece of energy infrastructure, it could really shift the way society approaches turbines. It shows, rather artfully, that renewable systems need not be hidden in plain sight. They need not be an eyesore either while performing the crucial task of power generation. There is a much-needed beauty in the motion of the wind and the machines that can help us in harnessing this need, not look like cold and unforgiving machinery that performs one function and one alone.
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