For this project, Dan Wuebben looks to our power-lined planet and asks an oversimplified question: Can power lines be a source of beauty instead of a blight?
Modernity requires connective wires, but perceptions of our overhead infrastructure show that we are deeply divided about the visual effects of widespread electrification. Can these architectural common denominators be seen as sculptures? Can widespread aversion to wiry aesthetic blight change the ways we transmit and consume electricity? As utilities prepare to build thousands of new miles of power lines to link wind farms and solar panels to the overburdened grid, this site offers fresh perspectives on the aesthetics, popular perceptions, and environmental impacts of power lines. Here you can explore the limber intersections between #beauty and #blight, #utility and #design, #electricity and #landscape.
My article "From Wire Evil To Power Line Poetics" is in latest issue of Energy Research and Social Science. Link in bio. #powerlines #notpowerlines #powerlined #renewableenergy
I was drawn to these three images for different reasons, the subject of the images are powerlines which are very structural and precise, which is something that I can relate to from personal experience with structure and precision but also within my practice as well. I also really like the locations in which they have been photographed, you could see a 4x4 being placed into one of these images, and it looking natural because of the terrain that surrounds these powerlines. Rather than trying to photograph generic landscapes, I could choose a subject like Samuel Comber has with the powerlines, and see what different landscapes I find with the subject being the main focus, not the overall landscape.
Oh geez… that’s a tough one. I have weird thoughts all the time because my mind just likes to wander all over the place into the most unusual scenarios and ideas.
Nothing’s coming to mind either, which is equally weird. Ummmmm, I once zoned out into a scenario where I and my friends were jumping treetops keeping up with cars on a highway, and we had like, rollerskates on and we’d ride on the powerlines and jump the obstacles on the side of the road and match the cars’ speed. I actually used to imagine that often. Not really sure why!