additional elements

URBAN SCREENS investigates how the currently commercial use of outdoor screens can be broadened with cultural content. We address cultural fields as digital media culture, urbanism, architecture and art. We want to network and sensitise all engaged parties for the possibilities of using the digital infrastructure for contributing to a lively urban society, binding the screens more to the communal context of the space and therefore creating local identity and engagement. The integration of the current information technologies support the development of a new integrated digital layer of the city in a complex merge of material and immaterial space that redefine the function of this growing infrastructure.
URBAN SCREENS defined as various kinds of dynamic digital displays and interfaces in urban space such as LED signs, plasma screens, projection boards, information terminals but also intelligent architectural surfaces being used in consideration of a well ballanced, sustainable urban society - Screens that support the idea of public space as space for creation and exchange of culture, strengthening a local economy and the formation of public sphere. Its digital nature makes these screening platforms an experimental visualisation zone on the threshold of virtual and urban public space. (Mirjam Struppek) - http://www.culturebase.org/home/urbanscreens/

Possibility of adding some further dimensions to the structure. Depending on the surface of the element the 'thing could be used to displsy art/information screenings. Could be quite interesting given the rotating nature of thepiece. This surface may be made as relatively flat and stable given the high rotating capabilities of the wind turbine. (may blur into one solid form. Much like the large installlation of the sony ad that shows how the motion flow on the TV works. This thinking is actually very old as it has been used in theory with pin hole cameras.

"Motionflow 200Hz is the world’s first quadruple speed 200Hz frame rate conversion that helps to improve the clarity of fast-moving objects on screen. It creates three new intermediate images based on the incoming signal and inserts them between the original pictures and thus images are displayed at a rate of 200 fps. As a result, Motionflow 200Hz offers sharp and smooth reproduction of fast-moving images especially when you’re watching sports programmes. " - http://www.sony.com.au/product/kdl-52z5500#Motionflow™%20200Hz

"Simply stated, a wind turbine works the opposite of a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind, a turbine uses wind to make electricity.
The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes electricity The electricity is sent through transmission and distribution lines to a substation, then on to homes, business and schools." - http://energiaeoliana.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/how-a-wind-turbine-works/

Project similarities

An example of a proposal that is, I think relevant to the assignment, one page of explanatory information using the computer. It also deals with wind and the effects of wind on structures.

Smaller example of wind catching unit being made at the moment.

"Windation Energy Systems, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based start-up, has developed a wind appliance that looks more or less like the modern heating and cooling equipment you see on flat corporate building rooftops.
There's an 8-by-8-foot frame around a 10-foot-high cylinder. Wind blows in the top and is directed to the bottom where the wind turns a turbine to make up to 5 kilowatts of electricity. A single unit wouldn't generate enough power for an entire office building but could offset a significant portion, the company says." - http://asia.cnet.com/crave/2008/10/13/urban-wind-power-inspired-by-ancient-persia/

Smaller less aesthetically pleasing example of a wind catcher/energy generator.

Other wind examples.

Other examples of structures that use the wind for certain purposes whether for supersticious or practical reasons.

Wind catcher in homes and Iranian windmill

1. Wind catcher, for summer ventilation

and common wind catching techniques used in Iranian architecture

"Why put a fan to catch the wind at ground level, where the wind speed is lowest, rather than 3 metres or more in the air? The extra speed of the wind would soon repay the work of putting-up the supporting structure. Why mount a heavy millstone and its supply of grain on a supporting structure, when it could rest on the ground beneath?As it happens, although the sources assumed that such a primitive device no longer exists Iranians continue to catch the wind to cool their houses through ingenious structures on top of their houses that can be traced back almost 2000 years. One can easily imagine such a structure adapted for a simple wind-driven mill." - Image 1 and 2 and passage from http://www.ullesthorpewindmill.org.uk/index.php?act=viewDoc&docId=7

Structural merits of tumbleweed.

The structural merits of the tumbleweed are to be taken into consideration. The fact that they are designed to be as light as possible yet surrender as much surface area to the wind is to influence the composition of the wind catcher. The mesh like qualities also lend itself to certain structural joins and movement that could influence certain rotations in the designing of the proposed wind catcher.