Zarard-lookingoutwards08

and the wind was like the regret for what is no more by João Costa

What it is: “This work consists of a set of sixteen bottles – with air blowers attached to each one of them – and a wind vane. The vane is fixed on the outside of a window and detects the direction the wind is blowing. Inside of the room, the motor starts blowing air into the bottle that corresponds to that particular direction. This event generates a smooth sound, and each direction has its own pitch. The bottles are arranged in a circle, similar to the shape of the compass rose, depicting the eight principal winds and the eight half-winds.” – Costa

To be honest I thought this was referencing some important historical monument but I did some research and I was actually just thinking of a spongebob episode.

The episode SpongeHinge. Not the monument Stonehinge. Honest mistake.

I think what makes the project so effective is that it requires your full attention to really be aware of whats going on. The artist is capturing wind direction with sound which is something you probably wouldn’t notice if you weren’t fully present in the moment. Wind direction isn’t something that people are generally attuned to so for us it is something like the invisible.

The capturing of the invisible, which is what the artist claims to get across isn’t quite there for me. The sound is obvious, but at the same time i don’t think it’d be immediately clear to me that the sound is linked to the wind direction (at least from the documentation). I think the winds would have to be more forceful and and controlled than what is given in that environment.

However I think the project is technically sound.

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