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Public Art Sculpture Submissions 2015: Puff of Wind

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Yes, the sculpture looks magnificent, but I think more pictures are needed for us to really see the whole of it. Or maybe some video would be a better option?
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Asher,

Hi Doug,

You're so observant, of course, the trait of an engineer!

The top flange is obvious. It supports the bearing assembly.

Yes, of course.

The lower flange is to hold 3/4" steel cables anchored to a tons of steel [curious expression -D] stacked on a massive concrete block disguised as a flower pot! The steel is topped with a 2" plate and there are 8 one inch threaded holes for 1" eye bolts, machine flat at the top to accommodate a marine jaw of a clevis with a swaged end to hold the 3/4" stainless steel cable.

The upper flange also has [will have] 4 1/2" eye bolts to be connected to 4 1/2" steel cables to go to the corners of the steel plate underneath the concrete pot.

The set of 8 3/4" cables deals with the moments applied to the supporting 8" steel pole from a hurricane loading force on the sail. I did the plan for the case in which the bearing assembly got stuck and the sails were receiving the 100-170 mph wind head on.

The lower 4 cables are just to keep the concrete pot within the steel restrictions welded to the base in case of some tipping at the very highest wind speeds with the bearings jammed!

I thought that might be the case.

Thanks.

Very thorough planning!

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The evolution of a mega sculpture

boat sculpture 02 28 15 big.213.jpg



Asher Kelman: "Puff of Wind" 2015


Material: Stainless Steel and Acrylic Paint.

Dimensions 16.6' high on 9ft pole

Computer Generated Graphic



This evolved as I looked at the proposed site and took in the heights of surounding large trees and the fact that, at 16 ft high, it would be rather hidden until one can right up to it.

So this grew to 33 ft high and that then meant taking consideration of a massive possovle wind load and what if the bearing assembly to allow the sails to be protected, got stuck. That meant getting the very best bearings to allow the structure to move in the wind like a weather vane. It also required that everything was strong enough to take the huge stresses and moments on the supporting pole and the concrete base provided by the City.

So engineering in reserve safety became my time consuming and money draining obsession and duty. This had to be safe without one bolt anchoring the massive sculpture to the concrete as that's the roof of the City Parking Structure hidden below the sculpture garden!

Asher
 
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Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Asher,

My greatest congratulations on this accomplishment.

Works that incorporate both "artistic" and "engineering" aspects, and of course their interaction, are among the most worthwhile enterprises of humankind.

May Puff of Wind have calm seas - calm winds, perhaps - and a perpetually prosperous journey! I suspect freedom from barnacles will be a given.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Peter Dexter

Well-known member
I haven't read through the whole thread and this may be covered but could it be mounted on bearings so it can rotate with the wind?
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I haven't read through the whole thread and this may be covered but could it be mounted on bearings so it can rotate with the wind?


Yes, Peter, it's mounted on a double set of 10" bearings designed to take care of torsion and angular moments.


Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The Change to the form of the wind element from round to linear.


Having completed the design and fabrication of the matured form of the sailboat, what about the "Puff of Wind"? The original design, based on a wildly spherical rotating wind pattern, would be even larger than before and that creates issues on lighting at night and stability. Keeping the lighting in tubes centered and even is beyond today's technology without first developing some new systems.

Also, the water waves in front and the wake behind, that I have completed, came out so beautifully that I was seduced to that motif of wave forms. That's what lead to a sharing of ideas with my son who also encouraged my ideas to explore a novel idiom of stacked air "waveforms".


Puff New Powder coat _1000.jpg


Asher Kelman: Puff of Wind

Photograph with 6D 50 1.2L, processed in Adobe Camera RAW, with layer of sky

Sculpture 6 ft high, 12 ft long 10" wide, mirror polished stainless steel with sky blue
upper surfaces of pigmented baked acrylic polymer and inlaid LED Neon lighting.

The advantage is that the linear form of stacked waves allows for nuanced and subtle directional pulses of light that go towards the massive sail. It repeats the "wave" motif around the hull below, but with its own distinct and originall character. There is no similar depiction of wind in any art I have discovered. So this is a risk, but I think it will become understandable symbology at first sight....that's my expectation and hope.\

The sail already looks so beautiful, light pure and feminine. So it is a danger that the more rectilinear "Puff" of wind will disrupt this magic. So I will have to see! I do not have to add it, but this is what I have worked on and the process is iterative. So far, the risks I have taken have paid off.

Asher
 
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