Molinoptere
The distinguishing feature of the Lanzarote Island, one of the Canary Islands, is its old windmills, or molinos. The island has limited natural sources of energy — it has no running streams and no woodland. What it does have, however, is ample wind, and for centuries Lanzarote has used wind power both to grind grain and to pump water. The island still has several remaining mills, but many of them are now in ruins. To give a second life to these abandoned structures, French artist Vincent Leroy develops a concept project titled “Molinoptere” that proposes to turn them into both art objects and wind turbines.

he Merce Cunningham performances, the final events of Dance Umbrella’s 25th Anniversary season and co-incidentally in MCDC’s 50th year, took place in the vast, 152 meter long Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern within the embracing environment of Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project.

Buoyant Airborne Turbine
Ettevõte Altaeros Energies tuli välja uudse lendava elektrigeneraatori (Airborne Wind Turbine) ideega, mis peaks tootma piisavalt madala hinnaga elektrit. Seadet vaadates tundub see olevat dirižaabeli ja tuuliku hübriid. Katse käigus (vaata all olevat videot) saadeti lendav elektrigeneraator 107 meetri kõrgusele taevasse ning pärast teatud aega toodi tagasi maapinnale. Katsest järeldati, et lendav elektrigeneraator toodab kaks korda rohkem energiat, kui masti otsa paigaldatud elektrigeneraator.

Turbine Hall

The Turbine Hall of Tate Modern is plunged into deep black gloom. At its east end, like the stained glass window of a cathedral, is a giant vertical screen. It is framed at the edges with sprocket holes, so we feel we are looking at a vast reel of film. In the centre, an ever-changing series of images: a snail on a wind-wobbled leaf, the powerful spume of a fountain, a chimney loosing trails of vapour. Sometimes the image is of the back wall of the Turbine Hall itself, but with its gridded form coloured in red, yellow and blue so it resembles a Mondrian. Or with a giant egg apparently floating from ceiling to floor.

Turbine

drawing with robot arm
“With gene mapping, gender reassignment, prosthetic limbs and neural implants, what a body is and how a body operates becomes problematic. We generate Fractal Flesh and Phantom Flesh, extended operational systems and virtual task environments. Meat and metal mesh into unexpected and alternate anatomical architectures that perform remotely beyond the boundaries of the skin and beyond the local space it inhabits. The monstrous is no longer the alien other. We inhabit an age of Circulating Flesh. Organs are extracted from one body and inserted into other bodies. Limbs that are amputated from a dead body can be reattached and reanimated on a living body. A face from a donor stitched to the skull of the recipient becomes a Third Face. A skin cell from an impotent male can be recoded into a sperm cell. And more interestingly a skin cell from a female body might be recoded into a sperm cell. Turbine hearts circulate blood without pulsing. In the near future you might rest you head on your loved one’s chest. They are warm to the touch, they are breathing, they are certainly alive. But they will have no heartbeat. A cadaver can be preserved forever through plastination whilst simultaneously a comatose body can be sustained indefinitely on a life-support system. Dead bodies need not decompose, near-dead bodies need not die. Most people will no longer die biological deaths. They will die when their life-support systems are switched off. The dead, the near-dead, the not-yet-born and the partially living exist simultaneously. And cryongenically preserved bodies await reanimation at some imagined future. We live in an age of the Cadaver, the Comatose and the Chimera. Liminal spaces proliferate. Engineering organs, stem-cell growing them or by bio-printing will result in an abundence of organs. An excess of organs. Of organs awaiting bodies. Of Organs Without Bodies.” STELARC

阿尼什•卡普尔
アニッシュ·カプーア
Аниш Капур
Arcelor Mittal Orbit
Award winning London-based artist Anish Kapoor has been given the commission of a lifetime to design the spectacular new public attraction in the Olympic Park. The stunning artwork, to be entitled ‘The ArcelorMittal Orbit’, will ensure the Park remains an unrivalled visitor destination following the 2012 Games, providing the key Olympic legacy Mayor of London Boris Johnson envisaged for the East End.The breathtaking sculpture – thought to be the tallest in the UK – will consist of a continuous looping lattice of tubular steel. Standing at a gigantic 115m, it will be 22m taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York and offer unparalleled views of the entire 250 acres of the Olympic Park and London’s skyline from a special viewing platform. Visitors will be able to take a trip up the statuesque structure in a huge lift and will have the option of walking down the spiralling staircase.One of the world’s most distinguished contemporary artists, Turner Prize winning Anish Kapoor studied in London, where he is now based. He is well known for his use of rich pigment and imposing, yet popular works, such as the vast, fleshy and trumpet-like Marsyas, which filled the Tate’s Turbine Hall as part of the Unilever Series, the giant reflecting, pod like sculpture Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park and his recent record breaking show at the Royal Academy, the most successful exhibition ever presented by a contemporary artist in London.