Renewable energy sculpture
Encyclopedia
A renewable energy sculpture is a sculpture that produces power from renewable sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric or tidal.
Such a sculpture is functionally both a renewable energy generator and an artwork
, fulfilling utilitarian, aesthetic, and cultural functions. The idea of renewable energy sculptures has been pioneered by ecofuturist visionaries such as artists Sarah Hall
, Julian H. Scaff
, Patrick Marold http://www.patrickmarold.com/, architects Lauri Chetwood and Nicholas Grimshaw, and University of Illinois professor Bil Becket. Echoing the philosophy of the environmental art
movement as a whole, artists creating renewable energy sculpture believe that the aesthetics of the artworks are inextricably linked to their ecological function.
is a glass artist who has recently been embedding solar photovoltaics
in her artworks. The solar cells are an integrated part of the artworks, and the energy generated by them can be used for lighting or other purposes. Hall believes that "Incorporating colour, light and art with solar energy inspires us to think about our future in a new context."
Artist and filmmaker Julian H. Scaff
has been working for several years with creating wind turbines that are also public artworks. In 2006 he proposed turning a planned wind farm in Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts into an enormous public artwork by dazzle painting the wind turbines and transforming the visual quality of both the machines and the landscape. His Venturi Towers designed for the island of Crete
incorporate the scientific principle of the Venturi effect
into sculpted towers. Scaff says that "We should think more freely about the aesthetics of wind turbines." Scaff's proposed Carbon Sink Sculptures are public artworks that utilize solar energy for carbon capture and storage
.
Patrick Marold's http://www.patrickmarold.com/windmill-project.aspx in Vail, Colorado
developed out of the artist's desire to create a visual map of the wind as well as to harness its behavior. On the slopes of the Rocky Mountains
he installed hundreds of small windmills, each with a light whose intensity matches the intensity of the wind. Marold explains:
Artist Christine Corday
's international project "Instrument for the Ocean to Play" utilizes tidal energy to produce a new sound through a temporary installed nautical work of monumental sculpture. The sculpture's intent is to inspire the imagination of a yet undiscovered sound, however its technology brings attention to a renewable energy.
Further examples of this approach to renewable energy is British artist and inventor Dan Hughes McGrail, http://www.solaesthetic.co.uk who has taken an aesthetic sculptural approach to solar thermal technology. His background includes sculpture, heritage and eco building. He is a practitioner of Ecodesign
. He believes, with the power of computerized design tools and the research resources now freely available, that aesthetics in design should be seen not as luxurious but as a normal priority: "There is no excuse to not make it beautiful", and "Form needn't follow function anymore. We have the power to model, visualize and consider them one and the same."
On a larger scale, potentially able to power entire cities, the Land Art Generator Initiative, a collaboration between artist Elizabeth Monoian and architect Robert Ferry, merges renewable energy sculpture with land art
. The project's first stage is an international design competition that invites interdisciplinary teams of artists, architects, scientists and engineers to design large scale renewable energy sculptures for sites in the United Arab Emirates.
that is called the London Oasis. Also deemed a kinetic sculpture, it is powered by solar cells, a hydrogen fuel cell, and wind energy
. Interacting with the environment around it, the London Oasis provides shade, light, and energy. In addition, it offers what Chetwood calls "People Pods" which people can pull down over the heads. The pods block out noise, provide clean filtered air, and play music and birdsongs.
Architect Nicholas Grimshaw, designer of the Eden Project
, has designed an enormous sea-based wind turbine sculpture called the Grimshaw Aerogenerator. The double-masted structure rotates very slowly compared to typical wind turbines, only three times per minute, yet generates up to nine megawatts of power.
Such a sculpture is functionally both a renewable energy generator and an artwork
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...
, fulfilling utilitarian, aesthetic, and cultural functions. The idea of renewable energy sculptures has been pioneered by ecofuturist visionaries such as artists Sarah Hall
Sarah Hall
Sarah Hall is a Canadian stained glass artist, notable for her extensive career, and current experimentation in the integration of photovoltaic technology into art glass...
, Julian H. Scaff
Julian H. Scaff
Julian H. Scaff is an artist, filmmaker, and designer from the Sonoran desert in southern Arizona.He received his BA in Film and Video from Pitzer College, his MA in Film Critical Studies from UCLA, and an MFA in Public Art from the Dutch Art Institute ....
, Patrick Marold http://www.patrickmarold.com/, architects Lauri Chetwood and Nicholas Grimshaw, and University of Illinois professor Bil Becket. Echoing the philosophy of the environmental art
Environmental art
The term environmental art is used in two different contexts: it can be used generally to refer to art dealing with ecological issues and/or the natural, such as the formal, the political, the historical, or the social context....
movement as a whole, artists creating renewable energy sculpture believe that the aesthetics of the artworks are inextricably linked to their ecological function.
Artists
Artist Sarah HallSarah Hall
Sarah Hall is a Canadian stained glass artist, notable for her extensive career, and current experimentation in the integration of photovoltaic technology into art glass...
is a glass artist who has recently been embedding solar photovoltaics
Photovoltaics
Photovoltaics is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material...
in her artworks. The solar cells are an integrated part of the artworks, and the energy generated by them can be used for lighting or other purposes. Hall believes that "Incorporating colour, light and art with solar energy inspires us to think about our future in a new context."
Artist and filmmaker Julian H. Scaff
Julian H. Scaff
Julian H. Scaff is an artist, filmmaker, and designer from the Sonoran desert in southern Arizona.He received his BA in Film and Video from Pitzer College, his MA in Film Critical Studies from UCLA, and an MFA in Public Art from the Dutch Art Institute ....
has been working for several years with creating wind turbines that are also public artworks. In 2006 he proposed turning a planned wind farm in Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts into an enormous public artwork by dazzle painting the wind turbines and transforming the visual quality of both the machines and the landscape. His Venturi Towers designed for the island of Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
incorporate the scientific principle of the Venturi effect
Venturi effect
The Venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a fluid flows through a constricted section of pipe. The Venturi effect is named after Giovanni Battista Venturi , an Italian physicist.-Background:...
into sculpted towers. Scaff says that "We should think more freely about the aesthetics of wind turbines." Scaff's proposed Carbon Sink Sculptures are public artworks that utilize solar energy for carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage , alternatively referred to as carbon capture and sequestration, is a technology to prevent large quantities of from being released into the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuel in power generation and other industries. It is often regarded as a means of mitigating...
.
Patrick Marold's http://www.patrickmarold.com/windmill-project.aspx in Vail, Colorado
Vail, Colorado
The Town of Vail is a Home Rule Municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population of the town was 4,589 in 2005. The town was established and built as the base village to Vail Ski Resort, with which it was originally conceived...
developed out of the artist's desire to create a visual map of the wind as well as to harness its behavior. On the slopes of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
he installed hundreds of small windmills, each with a light whose intensity matches the intensity of the wind. Marold explains:
"This sculpture momentarily embraces the wind allowing for a more attainable vision of this natural element, systematically creating a slight delay in the viewers’ sense of time. Some people have compared the visual representation to that of a flock of birds collectively swarming in the sky, or the uniquely animate northern lights. The impressive living body of light provokes a deeper perspective of the wind as it passes by."
Artist Christine Corday
Christine Corday
Christine Corday is a North American Artist. Corday studied graphic and fine arts as well as the sciences which led to an Astrophysics internship in 1991 with SETI Principal Investigator Dr.Laurance Doyle at NASA Ames Research Center. In 1993, Corday worked for advertising and design agencies as...
's international project "Instrument for the Ocean to Play" utilizes tidal energy to produce a new sound through a temporary installed nautical work of monumental sculpture. The sculpture's intent is to inspire the imagination of a yet undiscovered sound, however its technology brings attention to a renewable energy.
Further examples of this approach to renewable energy is British artist and inventor Dan Hughes McGrail, http://www.solaesthetic.co.uk who has taken an aesthetic sculptural approach to solar thermal technology. His background includes sculpture, heritage and eco building. He is a practitioner of Ecodesign
Ecodesign
Ecodesign is an approach to design of a product with special consideration for the environmental impacts of the product during its whole lifecycle. In a life cycle assessment the life cycle of a product is usually divided into procurement, manufacture, use and disposal.Ecodesign is a growing...
. He believes, with the power of computerized design tools and the research resources now freely available, that aesthetics in design should be seen not as luxurious but as a normal priority: "There is no excuse to not make it beautiful", and "Form needn't follow function anymore. We have the power to model, visualize and consider them one and the same."
On a larger scale, potentially able to power entire cities, the Land Art Generator Initiative, a collaboration between artist Elizabeth Monoian and architect Robert Ferry, merges renewable energy sculpture with land art
Land art
Land art, Earthworks , or Earth art is an art movement which emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked...
. The project's first stage is an international design competition that invites interdisciplinary teams of artists, architects, scientists and engineers to design large scale renewable energy sculptures for sites in the United Arab Emirates.
Architects
Architect Laurie Chetwood created a 10.5 meter tall (35 foot) tree-like structure on Clerkenwell Green in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
that is called the London Oasis. Also deemed a kinetic sculpture, it is powered by solar cells, a hydrogen fuel cell, and wind energy
Wind energy
Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion; see also wind power.Total wind energy flowing through an imaginary area A during the time t is:E = ½ m v2 = ½ v 2...
. Interacting with the environment around it, the London Oasis provides shade, light, and energy. In addition, it offers what Chetwood calls "People Pods" which people can pull down over the heads. The pods block out noise, provide clean filtered air, and play music and birdsongs.
Architect Nicholas Grimshaw, designer of the Eden Project
Eden Project
The Eden Project is a visitor attraction in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, including the world's largest greenhouse. Inside the artificial biomes are plants that are collected from all around the world....
, has designed an enormous sea-based wind turbine sculpture called the Grimshaw Aerogenerator. The double-masted structure rotates very slowly compared to typical wind turbines, only three times per minute, yet generates up to nine megawatts of power.
Further reading
- The Art Gallery of Renewable Energy, http://www.lope.ca/artrenewable/index.html
- Kastner, Jeffrey, Land and Environmental Art, Phaidon, copyright 2005
- Grande, John K., Balance: Art and Nature, Black Rose Books, NY, copyright 1994
- Grande, John K., Art Nature Dialogues: Interviews with Environmental Artists, State University of New York Press, copyright 2004
- Strewlow, Heike, Ecological Aesthetics: Art in Environmental Design: Theory and Practice, Birhäuser Basel, copyright 2004