Windspiel

Tensul tower with wind chime and dodecahedron

While I seem far away to build a sculpture with musically tuned tendons, I simply used an older idea move to transform little movement into sound: a wind chime. I suspended one of those from the top corners of a two-stage tensul tower, so that it has room to swing around. Just for show, I connect a large dodecahedron into the top triangle. Impulses travel now very unpredictable through the structure. It still needs anchoring for outdoor use, as you see in the video.



The dodecahedron came lose after the sculpture toppled the first time, I used it as reference for the wind speed. Shortly I kicked it back to rest next to the tower, a gust came. It looks like the weight of the wind chime pulled the structure over. I'm still surprised how easy the wind blows over tensegrity towers, as they offer only little surface area. If only I had some outdoor space for longer lasting experiments with stability in wind and weather....