Phenometer, 1990
52’ x 42”dia.
stainless steel, aluminum, neon, computer
Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY

Phenometer’s structural armature is a 50’ freestanding radio tower. Twenty circular aluminum platforms are evenly spaced and horizontally attached to the tower. Hundreds of stainless steel channels pivot from the platforms and are balanced so that they are activated by natural currents of wind. The stainless channels are reflective and create patterns of sunlight that rotate around the base of the tower.

An anemometer is located at the top of the tower and creates a magnetic pulse each time it rotates in the wind. This pulse enters an on-board computer, housed in the base of the tower, and is the heart of Phenometer’s nighttime performance. The computer translates the wind speed and then switches twenty circles of white neon that are attached to the underside of each of the aluminum platforms. A grouping of three neon circles is sequentially switched off and appear to move down the tower (“dark-chase”) as the wind turns the anemometer. The faster the wind blows, the faster the neon is switched and animated.