Force Five

I somehow got it in my head today that I wanted to blip the Tower of Light tonight because being quite windy, most of the rings would be lit up. So, having taken no emergency blip earlier, popped down in the car to "do the business". Well, who forgot that Wellington's wind can in fact get quite strong? My first location I could hardly stand myself, let alone think about setting up the tripod. Managed to hunker down behind a flax bush and rattled off a few, with this one being the best.

Excerpt from the website is below, and there is another comment there also pointing out that if you can see the red ring, the gusts are up around 140kph!!!

Sculpture background

"Tower of Light is a machine that uses the wind speed and converts that into light using very simple technology. The rotor at the top of the tower spins in accordance to the wind speed. This rotational speed is read via a controller, which then switches on neon rings in accordance to the speed of the rotor, which is determined by the wind speed.

The lighter the wind speed the fewer number of rings are lit and as the wind speed increases the more neon rings are lit. I have used colour as a measuring element and so the sequence goes from green at the bottom through the spectrum to red at the top. As a result, the viewer is able to read wind speed through colour, a method for them to re-sense their environment.

Tower of Light then becomes a work that has a strong social presence. It not only has a visual role, but has a social role and as a result will integrate its place into the local environment."

Andrew Drummond - January 2005