STEVE HEIMBECKER
Qube Assemblage for Art in Motion
Intermedia and Audio Art, Multi-Channel Sound, Fine Arts
with Montréal studios located in the districts of Outremont (north of Beaubien - west of Parc ave.) and in Point St. Charles.
Wind Array Cascade Machine - WACM (2003)
Honorary Mention in Interactive Art,
Prix Ars Electronica 2005
The Wind Array Cascade Machine on the rooftop of Meduse, Quebec City, in May of 2003,
while streaming data to POD at the Subtle Technologies Festival in Toronto.
The Wind Array Cascade Machine (2003) WACM, is a 64 channel kinetic wind mapping and network diffusion system. Inspired by the wave patterns of the wind seen flowing across the summer wheat fields of the Saskatchewan prairies, each of WACM’s 64 motion sensors move and bend very much like stocks of wheat. At a sample rate similar to film frame rate, the 2 meter tall "wheat stock" sensor units record the velocity (amplitude) of the wind by measuring the tilt of the sensor as affected by the force of the changing wind. Wave pattern and direction, a bit like falling dominoes, are captured using the entire WACM network. For Heimbecker, these wave patterns metaphorically represent the movement of sound (sine) waves in space, and like sound are affected by the architecture of the space that it exists in. The data generated by the WACM can be recorded and archived like a photograph, or can be streamed over the WWW to Heimbecker's installations built for the WACM data set. The WACM series of installations are: POD (2003), Signe (2005), Paravent (2006), and the Turbulence Sound Matrix (2007). The WACM is typically installed on rooftops and covers an area of about 10 meters by 10 meters. The WACM has been located on the rooftop of Meduse in Quebec City (2003), and on the rooftop of the Ex-Centris building in Montreal (2004/05). The WACM is currently in storage at Qube Assemblage, Montreal.
The electronic and software systems for the WACM were designed in collaboration with Avatar, Québec, QC, Canada. Research and production funding for the WACM came from the Canada Council for the Arts, with rooftop acess in Quebec City supported by Avatar, and in Montreal by the Daniel Langlois Foundation.
The Wind Array Cascade Machine (2003). The photo above and on the left shows WACM on the smaller rooftop of Meduse in Quebec City in January 2003. Note the colour of the new copper "stems". The photo on the right shows WACM on the larger rooftop of Ex-Centris in the summer of 2005 after being outdoors for about 1 full year.
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