Tree Turbine Video

opening night

The opening Saturday night was awesome! There was a huge turn out of New Haven folks, it was great to see you all, thanks for your support!

Badlands Installation views

The Tree Turbine project is part of an exhibition called Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape curated by Denise Markonish. The Tree Turbine could not have been possible without her amazing support and vision. Here are a few shots of the other work I have included in the exhibition.

Prototype #1

Here are some images of the completed Tree Turbine Prototype #1. The upper branch section spins independently from the bottom trunk. Inside the trunk is a small generator that produces electricity as the branches spin. The power is used to charge a bank of batteries that is located inside the fake rock. The batteries then power several LED landscape lights that illuminate the Tree Turbine and a few surrounding birch trees.

Last Details

Saturday morning I finished painting the last bit of the trunk. It will be wet for the opening, but it's not the first time I've completed a project within minutes of the opening!

Installation Day

Thursday was an exciting day! A crew came in the morning with a huge drill and blasted a 6 foot deep hole for the trunk. Bill and his crew also assembled the branches to the upper trunk. Later during periods of rain we hoisted the upper section of the tree and set it into place.

Green Machine

The paint came out beautifully thanks to Bill Greenwald and his crew. Richard will have a green shop for a little while!

Paint prep

All the pieces and parts made it to Mass Moca and are ready to paint. Everything will be primed and painted before installation. Here's an image of me sanding away at the aluminum branches in Richard Criddle's metal shop.

OG

On the way back from NYC I stopped by my favorite rest stop on the cusp of the Hutchinson and Merritt Parkways.  This was the big guy that sent me on a path of tree drawings that eventually led me to the Tree Turbine project.  Perhaps someday when cellular communication towers are no longer used we can make this guy spin.

aluminum branches

Yesterday Heather Darcy Bhandari from Mixed Greens and I visited Steve Mesler , in the photo, at Milgo Bufkin where the branches were fabricated.  Each branch was cut from my original drawing with a computer aided water-jet cutting machine and then curved using their CAD based roller.  Next stop Mass Moca!

Final Model

Today Jill, Laura and I finished the model for the Badlands exhibition at Mass Moca.  Dr. Montazer from the UNH Engineering department stopped by to see the final piece.  

It spins!

I assembled the scale model this weekend and gave it a trial run.  It spins like crazy... whew, what a relief... I mean, I knew it would work great... 

Model Madness

Here is a sneak peek of the final model in process.  I enlisted the help of Peter Cohen the Yale University Art Gallery carpentry wizard.  Notice the mess... you can tell there is a deadline approaching.

Design Team

Laura and Jill hard at work on the website and shopping for miniature gas stations and smart cars.

March Model

After consulting with Dr. Lambrakas and Naresh Babu from the University of New Haven engineering department I developed this new study model that works really well.

March Mass Moca

I visited Mass Moca today and scoped out the site for the Tree Turbine.  Luckily Spencer Finch had a prototype of a weathervane in the same location so I was able to see the direction of the wind.  Thanks Mr. Finch!

February

I just finished a new drawing for the exhibition at Mass Moca.  The show is called Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape and is curated by Denise Markonish.  The drawing is titled Spinning Tree for Spent Oil.

I started meeting with the engineering faculty and students at the University of New Haven.  They will be assisting me with the design of the project.  After a few brainstorming sessions I came up with these models.  They spin but not very well.  I guess I'll head back to the drawing board...