Wrestle with the earth forever
Botanists, satellites, and politicians
Dig, dry, destroy
The butterfly effect
Uncanny playspace
Turbine testing and wind on demand
Fluid dynamic domestication
So, is it beautiful?
Monitoring, monitoring, monitoring...
Moving the [atmospheric] river
Exhibition
Curatorial Conversation
Gallery
About
This is one lens, no pun intended, into the wind-blown movement of dust, the primary hazard on Owens Lake today and the reason LADWP is there. Although effective dust control requires numerous practices in tandem, wind fences are one of the lake’s most elegant and simple.
Only wind within six feet of the ground surface pulls dust particles off the ground. Depending on the intensity, it results in three stages of movement: creep (basically rolling), saltation (basically bouncing), and airborne (continually flying). The simple idea was that wind fences perpendicular to prevailing wind directions could block that low flow or at least reduce wind speed for several tens of meters of ground beyond the fence.
We love this story because it shows that in complex environments, even the simplest solutions have unintended consequences. Wind fences are good blockers, but eventually dust and sand pile up against their windward side and grow into tall dunes that can bury fences altogether. A cyclical dance ensues as LADWP monitors sand dune buildup and downwind dune movement via satellite scans to know when to head into the field to unearth, patch up, and reposition the fences again.
Ansel Adams noticed the beauty of the first wind fencing at Owens Lake in 1948, and contemporary German photographer of the terrain vague, Markus Van Drossel revisited the wind fences recently to highlight an unexpected consequence: local children coming to sled on the dunes.
This story reminds that success at Owens Lake is not binary and results can be hard to judge. The wind fences have mixed success as dust mitigation, but how do we consider their success as uncanny playspaces, or as accidental art subjects?
5.U.UC.010
5.U.UC.011
5.U.UC.012
5.U.EX.021
5.U.EX.022
5.U.EX.027
5.U.UC.030
5.U.UC.031
5.U.UC.032
5.U.UC.032
5.U.UC.044
5.U.UC.042
5.U.UC.061
5.U.UC.060
5.U.UC.060
5.U.UC.080
5.U.UC.092
5.U.UC.094
5.U.UC.098
5.U.UC.094
5.U.UC.098
5.U.UC.066
5.U.UC.095
5.U.UC.095