Panopticon

I decided this morning to get up and go for a drive and blow away some cobwebs. I love that Blip has given me an excuse to head off in a random direction to visit a place I've never been to before.  It’s given me so much more than just making sure I take a photo every day.
 
The Singing Ringing Tree is a wind powered sound sculpture resembling a tree set in the landscape of the Pennine hill range overlooking Burnley.
 
Completed in 2006, it is part of the series of four sculptures within the Panopticons arts and regeneration project. The project was set up to erect a series of 21st-century landmarks, or Panopticons (structures providing a comprehensive view), across East Lancashire as symbols of the renaissance of the area.
 
Designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu of Tonkin Liu, the Singing Ringing Tree is a 3-metre tall construction comprising pipes of galvanised steel which harness the energy of the wind to produce a slightly discordant and penetrating choral sound covering a range of several octaves. Some of the pipes are primarily structural and visual elements, while others have been cut across their width enabling the sound. The harmonic and singing qualities of the tree were produced by tuning the pipes according to their length by adding holes to the underside of each.
 
The Singing Ringing Tree was only a 10 minute walk from the car park but so nice to be in the middle of nowhere, the wind whipping around me whilst I stood listening to the moaning of the tree and admiring the scenery all around me ... and then .... the phone rang and I have a job interview at 9 am tomorrow!  Trying to explain the background noise on the call took a couple of minutes!!
 
Quote for today:
We can harness the energy of the winds, the seas, the sun.  But the day man learns to harness the energy of love, that will be as important as the discovery of fire.
- Paulo Coelho