In Open Air

'Those who did not laugh flew into a rage : that bluish tinge, that novel rendering of light seemed an insult to them. Some gentlemen shook their sticks.' Taken from 'His Materpiece' 1886 by Emile Zola

Over many centuries the public and critics have discussed hundreds of thousands of art works, praising or criticising the visual merits of them. So for this project I want to view the wind farms as a piece of public sculpture no different to that of Gormley's Angel Of The North. Just standing looking at something is great way in engaging with open dialogues, wind farms are either loved or hated.

I want to pose these questions; What do you see when you look at the turbines? How do they aesthetically sit on the landscape? What do you like or dislike about them? If you were asked to design a wind turbine what would yours look like?
Please feel free to add your own comments on the above questions

I have been collecting video imagery of two wind farms surrounding Aberystwyth;

Mynydd Gorddu (npower) which is situated 5 miles NE of the town, near the village of Bow Street. The wind farm consists of 19 turbines and has a combined maximum output of 10.2 megawatts.
The wind farm consists of two different sizes of three-bladed turbines; 7 of the turbines are each rated at 600 kilowatts (kW) with a hub height of 34 metres (m) and a full rotor diameter of 43m. The other 12 are rated at 500kW each with a hub height of 35m and full rotor diameter of 41m.
The rotors on both turbine sizes turn at an approximate speed of 30 revolutions per minute (rpm), driving a gearbox within the nacelle which is in turn connected to a generator. The turbines start to generate electricity automatically when the wind speed reaches around 11 miles per hour (mph), and achieve maximum output at around 33 mph. They shut down when the wind speed exceeds 56 mph. Manufactured by NEG Micron (Denmark)

Llangwyryfon (edf) which is situated 9 miles S of the town, near Llangwyryfon and Lledrod. The wind farm consists of 11 turbines each producing 0.85MW of power. They have a total height of 66m, manufactured by Vestas (Denmark)

I will be working from studio 3 (the silver pods) at Aberystwyth Arts Centre from May 18th till May 30th, please feel free to comment, or email me at tim.skinner@btinternet.com. You can find out more about me and my practice at www.timskinner.co.uk.