Monday, September 27, 2010

Harvesting the Sun


The New Harmony design team presented "Harvesting the Sun" last Friday as part of the Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation's "Last Friday of the Month" series. Thank you to everyone who contributed, and to those who came for the reception and presentation. It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase some of our work on the sculpture and solar park. We are incredibly excited to move into the next phase, and start exploring the other design opportunities associated with the project. The team will continue to operate under the philosophy that public art should be environmentally responsible.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Earthworks of the Native American Hopewell - Lunar Alignments

"Hively and Horn (1982)1 added a significant dimension to our appreciation of the Hopewellian achievement when they determined that the major rising and setting points of the moon, encompassing an 18.6 year cycle, are incorporated into the architecture of the Newark Earthworks. They speculate that this astronomical information is not just symbolically encoded into the site plan, but that the substantial earthen walls, with their long sight lines and a height that corresponds, more or less, to eye level, are massive (and therefore long-lived and tamper proof) fixed instruments for making astronomical observations." 

-- Dr. Brad Lepper, from A View from the Core, A synthesis of Hopewell Archaeology, edited by Paul J. Pacheco




more information at: http://www.copperas.com/octagon/oindex.html

Monday, September 13, 2010

Story of the forest, the grove & Diana Nemorensis



Stories of the forest, the grove, the scared space in between dense vegetation and the waters edge.

New Harmony, situated on a flood plain of the great Wabash river, is a dynamic site.  The geology, archeology, paleontology and ecology of this place is a vital starting point for design.

How do we create a space with implicit meaning for the vitality of our mental landscapes?

Can we restore the primacy of mystery, grace and silence in the wake of automobiles, bypasses and the non-renewable energy climate of today?

William Turner, Lake Nemi (British Museum, London, England, United Kingdom)
courtesy of william-turner.org
courtesy of william-turner.org
History of Diana Nemorensis

Experts from The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer (project Gutenberg full html text)

"little woodland lake of Nemi— “Diana’s Mirror,” as it was called by the ancients. No one who has seen that calm water, lapped in a green hollow of the Alban hills, can ever forget it. The two characteristic Italian villages which slumber on its banks, and the equally Italian palace whose terraced gardens descend steeply to the lake, hardly break the stillness and even the solitariness of the scene. Diana herself might still linger by this lonely shore, still haunt these woodlands wild.

In antiquity this sylvan landscape was the scene of a strange and recurring tragedy. On the northern shore of the lake, right under the precipitous cliffs on which the modern village of Nemi is perched, stood the sacred grove and sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis, or Diana of the Wood. The lake and the grove were sometimes known as the lake and grove of Aricia. But the town of Aricia (the modern La Riccia) was situated about three miles off, at the foot of the Alban Mount, and separated by a steep descent from the lake, which lies in a small crater-like hollow on the mountain side"

"Of the worship of Diana at Nemi some leading features can still be made out. From the votive offerings which have been found on the site, it appears that she was conceived of especially as a huntress, and further as blessing men and women with offspring, and granting expectant mothers an easy delivery. Again, fire seems to have played a foremost part in her ritual. For during her annual festival, held on the thirteenth of August, at the hottest time of the year, her grove shone with a multitude of torches, whose ruddy glare was reflected by the lake; and throughout the length and breadth of Italy the day was kept with holy rites at every domestic hearth. Bronze statuettes found in her precinct represent the goddess herself holding a torch in her raised right hand; and women whose prayers had been heard by her came crowned with wreaths and bearing lighted torches to the sanctuary in fulfilment of their vows"

"Diana was essentially a goddess of the woodlands, as Ceres was a goddess of the corn and Bacchus a god of the vine. Her sanctuaries were commonly in groves, indeed every grove was sacred to her, and she is often associated with the forest god Silvanus in dedications. But whatever her origin may have been, Diana was not always a mere goddess of trees. Like her Greek sister Artemis, she appears to have developed into a personification of the teeming life of nature, both animal and vegetable. As mistress of the greenwood she would naturally be thought to own the beasts, whether wild or tame, that ranged through it, lurking for their prey in its gloomy depths, munching the fresh leaves and shoots among the boughs, or cropping the herbage in the open glades and dells. Thus she might come to be the patron goddess both of hunters and herdsmen, just as Silvanus was the god not only of woods, but of cattle. Similarly in Finland the wild beasts of the forest were regarded as the herds of the woodland god Tapio and of his stately and beautiful wife"

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Human Experience in Architecture

Designers are challenged with the responsibility of bringing form to the formless, of bringing order to the chaos. It is designers' intent, in this world of ceaseless mobility, that the created forms differentiate a slice of the human experience from the vast connectiveness of highways and fast-food drive-throughs to places of memory and conversation.

The French anthropologist Marc Auge illustrates this point by drawing an analogy between modern and medieval maps. Each inherently contains a different purpose. Modern maps are amazing feats of science and technology. Since the advent of air travel and satellites, we create hyper-accurate maps detailing roads and locations down to amazing decimal points. No quantitative measure is missed, as these maps form an “inventory of geographical knowledge.” Medieval maps describe a journey narrative. “Route describers” explain the purpose of each step, and “doing” and “seeing” create a history of journey. The relationship between the earth, the sky, and fellow travelers remains the essence of “map.”



This design must embrace the means by which people traverse to this site. Our challenge on this project will be not only creating a beautiful piece of artwork or functional driveway entrance, but also creating memory of education and history of conversation - experiences that people hold as they move from this place.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The use of Sunflowers

Like every other aspect of this venture, creating the solar panel array is going to be an innovative and site specific design for New Harmony. Included is the design and function of the solar panel structure.


Through the ages the first step when innovating is to look for inspirations from nature. A natural example that can relate to the solar panel needs are sunflowers. The reason being is their dense top heavy head is similar to the panel and their ability to follow the path of the sun during the day like tracking motors. Organic tracking of the sun is called heliotropism and is known for increasing the plant's rate of photosynthesis.

In solar panel terms this ability increases the collectors output, where mechanical trackers have been said to increase by 15-20%. Pursuing the study of the sunflowers may lead to creating a more organic approach to following the rays of the sun. 

Further research has shown the sunflower has a flexible area in the stem which acts like a joint called the pulvinus. This is located just below the head of the sunflower and is filled with motor cells that react to change of turgor (water) pressure and alter the angle of the head. 

Today we have found this view has been previously taken by a young group of student engineers from MIT, who also have taken inspiration from the sunflower and have created a system that reacts to the light and alters the position of the solar panel in a way that does not need an external power source or mechanical motor. Learning from their achievement and their use of metals ability to warp under sunlight, further research is now directed towards smart materials that react to their stimulus in their environment and also further lessons on understanding the mechanism controlling the turgor pressure in the pulvinus to see if any potential designs can be created. 

Friday, August 27, 2010

In the Beginning...


Artist and innovator John David Mooney was commissioned to design an Eastern Gateway Entrance for New Harmony, Indiana. Looking for inspiration, Mr. Mooney contemplated the utopian vision of New Harmony proposed by Lord Owen the 1820s which would broing art and science together. Because of Lord Owen, New Harmony has been such a leader in the science and the humanities.

Mooney’s concept for the entrance piece to New Harmony is one which educates and provides a national example of how public art can be environmentally responsible and proactive in creating the energy sources for the entire town through the art. This piece will encompass numerous areas, such as conservation and sustainability; community building; economic development; scientific literacy and uses of technology; cultural development; and inspiration, for those who are looking for “green solutions” to reinvent the manner in which we live on our planet.