Stone Wave
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition
Artist Team: Nicolas Violette, Christofer Cornevaux
Artist Location: Paris, France
Energy Technologies: hydraulic cylinder micro-turbine generators
As land in Copenhagen was reclaimed from the sea, the sea now becomes the land. Stone Wave stands at a meeting point between the energy of water and human energy. It allows the water to move the ground, and it allows visitors to walk on water… almost.
The installation is composed of 5742 paving units, suspended in a water channel carved into the land from the sea. The basaltic stone is extracted locally to reduce transport waste.
The energies resulting from the meeting of human and wave are converted into electricity by harnessing the forces of movement. The weight of visitors walking on the paving units that float on the water causes the units to slowly sink. By this action, a small turbine at the base of each unit is driven to create electricity. Water movement from the wake of a passing boat or from the subtle action of the tides and winds act on each unit to drive the turbines in the opposite direction, while the stone pavers rise back up to a resting position, buoyed by watertight boxes fixed under the stone blocks.
The technologies used are inspired by mechanical spinning tops and by R. Buckminster Fuller’s synergetics concept, an empirical study of systems in transformation.
Stone Wave creates a balance between two attributes—a calm and diffuse, yet constant energy.
