ATKNv2

ATKNv2 or A tribute to Karl L. Nessler version 2, is a continuation of the ATKN project. What if the way we harvest energy would reflect directly into how we use our communication technologies? These days, in times of super connectedness, we use or devices to pick up the messages that travel in the air at any given momement at any given place, without really considering the energetic and electrical nature of the communication. Would it be possible to create some kind of poétique de l'énergie.

The ATKN project explores the fundamental precondition of wireless communication : you need energy to communicate! A windmill with vertical axes, uses the displacement of air to harvest energy. Only when an efficient amount of energy is reached it will establish a wireless link with a remote site ( another windmill). The speed of the windmill and the amount of energy generated defines the quality of the connection. Energy is directly coupled to communication. Air will generate energy which will produce communication and fill the airspace. Sound and image will be sent back and forth from one location to the other, if conditions allow it.

While ATKN project is a kind of wind operated camera. It transmits images from one location to the other according to the energy generated by the windmill. Somewhere in the movie presenting the project, I state :

AIR = COMMUNICATION, WIND&ENERGY

This made me think, wouldn't it be nice to make a windmill which makes sound, and not like a wind organ or anything, but a windmill that speaks! Or kind of. Like the apparatus by Von Kempelen.wikipedia:Wolfgang_von_Kempelen

This page contains info about the development of this new wind operated device.

Creative Inspiration : As the story goes Wolfgang von Kempelen built the Turk, to impress Queen, to convince her to give him the money to work on a much greater a maachne which could mimic the, a machine that coudl produce sound, tha coudl speak.

They even have name for it : Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) is a way to store energy generated at one time for use at another time. At utility scale, energy generated during periods of low energy demand (off-peak) can be released to meet higher demand (peak load) periods. [C.A.E.S.]

Working on a small model to test the ATKNv2 concept, built according to the openstructures construction model. The shape of the whole thing is based upon the shape of the typical weatherstations. Mine will be without the little shelter on top, just open as it needs to catch wind. It is more of a pedestal on which I can arrange the different components I need to compress air to generate sound. Building it for the Exhibition "On a different soil". It is a test setup to explore the storage of energy carried by wind, and use it to produce sound. A small windmill compresses air which is stored in a container. At irregular intervals the air is released and excites a reed to produce sounds. The goal is, within the TIK project, to install clocks which communicate with each other over the TIK network, using TIK time, sharing the information carried by the wind.

A few early sketches: and some images of a weatherstation (Stevenson Screen)

Components are :

a small windmill : a small Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
a pump driven by the windmill to compress air :
a container to store the compressed air : preferably a glass container
a simple mechanisme to generate sound (not quiet sure about this part yet how to built it)
the structure itself : portable, modular, multi functional worktop

multi functional worktop

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Atknv2.1 - Atknv2.first version :

Disassembled first version. It was built from scratch in my studio turned metal workshop. All parts are done by hand. Little work was done beforehand on the design table. Just took the materialat hand and started modeling. Bearing the design rules of openstuctures in mind. Next step is a version that . Most work went into the construction of the tabletop the pied. A detailed page of the can be found here. sticks more to the grid.

No wings on it yet, just the form I had cutout at timelab But you can already see the shape of the wings. Again loosely based upon the Ed Lenz model. This time with 3 wings like the original.