WIND STUDY

Wind Study is an interactive installation that explores wind as a metaphor for the virtual. The artwork represents wind both as human breath and as an energy generator. Upon entering the gallery, the viewer finds computer fans hanging on the wall in a line below eye level. A mass of wires connects one to the next. Viewers are invited to blow on a sensor at the beginning of the line, which transforms their breath into electric power, sparking a domino effect powering each electric fan. The fans’ speed is determined by the strength of the participant’s breath on the sensor. The microprocessor acts as a mediator between the breath and the wind produced by the computer fans. Utilizing human breath—the original source of energy in the piece—symbolically, Wind Study demonstrates the dominance of mediated experience in contemporary culture.