Mobile Research Station No. 1

Wind Study #1 – Grid: video 1 [above]

Grass & bottle wind vanes – Grid [above] from Tim Knowles on Vimeo.

Wind Study #1 – Grid: Video 2 [oblique]

Grass & bottle wind vanes from Tim Knowles on Vimeo.

Research – Wind Study #1 – Grid

Grass & Bottle wind vanes positioned in grid

Initial setup for grid

4×5 grid

Grid from above

Research – Wind Study #1

In an effort to investigate and reveal the winds movements on the site, I determined to make a number of wind vanes.

Utilizing empty beer and soft drink bottles found discarded on site and the long meadow grass I created simple wind vanes.

Seedhead acts as wind vane’s tail.

The grass stalk is bent once to create a pointer.

Second bend secured by wrapping the grasses blade around junction creates a vertical axis.

Hole cut in bullseye of Bionade bottle top to keep grass central in bottle.

Bionade – a natural organic non-alcoholic refreshment – seems the soft drink of choice in Berlin and discarded caps could be picked up all over the wasteland.

The other Berlin drink of choice!

A small amount of sand in the bottom of the bottle keeps grass stem central rather than sliding down the dome in the bottle’s base causing the grass to lean.

nephology.eu

After leaving Mobile Research Station No. 1, I am continuing to observe and record clouds at http://nephology.eu

Plans

The wasteland area around Mobile Research Station No. 1 will be the site of a series of experiments and investigations into the flow of air – the winds effect on the environment and the environments effect on the wind.
Commencing 15/09/2009.

tent and bunting

Securing the Perimeter

Quicktime file – click link

securing the perimeter

Grounds (Berliner Mauer)

The first guise of Berlin’s Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart was erected in 1961 by the German Democratic Republic to stem the exodus of its citizens to the West, for between 1948 and August 1962 nearly three million East Germans had escaped from the harsh policies to the West though the Berlin loophole.

On two short trips to Berlin in 2008, I visited the couple of remnants that are generally known; the rest seemed to have completely disappeared from the streets of Berlin (with a few sections accessioned to museums around the world). The public memory of an endless border with watchtowers at regular intervals and floodlights continuously illuminating the border at night was no longer present.
 
In the summer of 2009, having been invited by Simon Faithfull to spend time researching in Mobile Research Unit no.1 at the Berlin Skulpturenpark – itself occupying vacant plots left by the removal of the Wall – I became fascinated with the remnants I had previously overlooked.
 
Using the Berliner Mauerweg as my primary guide I set out to cycle the ~160km of the former Wall’s path and see traces remaining there today. Yet my pursuit quickly devolved into something else: a gentle four day ride on a borrowed bike turned into a several week mission involving archives, museums, history books, autobiographies, conversations with government officials and with strangers. Following the officially signposted Berliner Mauerweg and then taking detours based on the evidence I stumbled across, experiencing the interstices not discussed by the tourist and general history guides, to look at the Berlin today 20 years after the fall of the wall, to feel the distance of pedal on ground.

extract from Grounds (Berliner Mauer) article commissioned for You Are Here (November 2009) on Broken Dimanche Press. Text accompanied with photographs.
 

Boundary Indicator

Boundary Indicator

Samurai Flags

Running

Under Blanket

Survival Blanket – Stall – Rocks

Nano-sand

I’m working to create a nano-sized grain of sand, to be buried in a desert.

our local flora

I am looking at the herbaceous plants growing in the area, the relevance of the categorization “native” and “non-native”, and the war on “invasive species”.

I’m also looking at the interaction between the plants, and at Darwin’s On the Origin of Species verses Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.

Not quite sure where this is going yet.

Our local flora:

ACHILLEA MILLEFOLIUM (native)
ACHILLEA PTARMICA (native)
AETHUSA CYNAPIUM (native)
ANTHYLLIS VULNERARIA (native)
ARTEMISIA VULGARIS (native)
BALLOTA NIGRA (non-native)
BERTEROA INCANA (non-native)
BUDDLEJA DAVIDII (non-native)
CENTAUREA JACEA (native)
CHRYSANTEMUM SEGETUM (non-native)
CICHORIUM INTYBUS (non-native)
CIRCIUM AVENSE (native)
CIRSIUM VULGARE (native)
CLEMATIS VITALBA (native)
CREPIS BIENNIS (non-native)
DIANTHUS DELTOIDES (non-native)
DIPLOTAXIS MURALIS (native)
ECHIUM VULGARE (native)
GYPSOPHILA MURALIS (native)
HELICHRYSUM ARENARIUM (native)
HYPERICUM PERFORATUM (native)
LINARIA VULGARIS (native)
LOTUS CORNICULATUS (native)
MEDICAGO FALCATA (native)
MEDICAGO LUPULINA (native)
MEDICAGO SATIVA (native)
MELILOTUS ALBUS MEDIK (non-native)
MELILOTUS OFFICINALIS (non-native)
OENOTHERA BIENNIS (non-native)
PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA (non-native)
RESEDA LUTEA (non-native)
RUMEX ACETOSA (non-native)
SAPPONARIA OFFICINALIS (native)
SEDUM ACRE (native)
SEDUM ALBUM (native)
SILENE LATIFOLIA (native)
SINAPIS ALBA (non-native)
SOLIDAGO CANADENSIS (non-native)
TANACETUM VULGARE (native)
TARAXACUM (native)
TRIFOLIUM ARVENSE (native)
TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE (native)
TRIFOLIUM REPENS (native)
URTICA DIOICA (native)
VERBASCUM PHOLOMOIDES (native)

And if anyone can tell me what these last three little fuckers are, it would be a lot of help:

Annika
www.annikalundgren.net

Mauer

Berliner Mauer (top), my cycle routes coloured by day (below)

Nephology

I am observing and recording clouds.

Photos on Flickr

more photos

Cirrostratus

Transparent, whitish cloud veil of fibrous or smooth appearance, totally or partly covering the sky, and generally producing halo phenomena.

growing

In stead if overlaying the tracks, and giving them differed colors, I now made them subsequent 15% bigger.

These research results will form the basis for my paper presentation at ISEA2009 Belfast Waterfront Hall Bar II Saturday 29 August 14:00.
The paper can be fount on www.elasticmapping.net

Becoming a crowd

Total routine. Kreutzberg is my run town now

Forth route:

Today every step feels like home run

Becoming a small team

Third run. I am now with three of myself

Third day on the Research Station

Body recovery. I spend this day hanging out at the terrain of the Research Station itself.

Retracing the path… (first time)

…and remembering where I was yesterday. Finding my way more easy than the first time,  and doing a small part of the route totally different. Exploration. Still arriving approximately at the same time…

Tracing the path

This can only be done ones. Otherwise it becomes retracing. Witch can again be done endlessly….

Mobile Run: Grounded Research

I plan to join the local park experience of sports minded Berliners by jogging. I will set out a nice run for myself with as many trees as possible. For me the run will be firstly totally new, as I did never run in Berlin before. Every time that I do the run again, the memories about the run(s) before will come back. I improve myself every day, so in a way I always run against myself. I improve the route every day, so the best parts will be run most intensely.

The research will be about how the visualization of my route data and speed do influence my every day experience both the city and my body.

construction photos