Manuel Cyrill


Aeolian scape (2019 - ongoing)





Wind as an archaic and universal experience connects the narratives of many cultures and countries across the globe. Through my artistic observations and explorations of air currents and wind, I have developed several sculptural and kinetic objects. These works make airflows and gusts of wind tangible to viewers through very simple means. Central to the project is the reproducibility of specific wind intensities and the resulting synaesthetic experience of sound—translating the energy of air currents in relation to objects. Certain landscape types correspond to these wind songs; the intensity and direction of the wind reflect the morphology of the land. This becomes particularly relevant in the current societal debate on the use of wind power in wind-rich regions and its impact on the visual character of the landscape.



Like Jana Hartmann’s Mastering the Elements or Julius von Bismarck’s Die Luft muss man sich wegdenken (One must imagine the air away), this work also examines natural phenomena as artistic material. By employing specific technologies, my practice develops its own approach, culminating in a multimedia, immersive installation that understands landscape as a permanent field of tension between natural processes and human design. The starting point is my work Listen to the wind but different IV.


In the summer of 2019, at the Symposion Lindabrunn site, I used a hand-crafted wind turbine mounted on a DC motor to generate inductive voltage—and thus electricity. I measured this with an Arduino microprocessor and recorded it as a data track. This recording is then used to control four PC fans, which in turn produce an airflow corresponding to the signal captured by the wind turbine. The four fans are mounted inside a black-fabric-covered frame placed on top of a glass jar (27 × 17 × 17 cm) filled with several wild goose feathers, which move in the airflow.



For viewers, the object appears at once clinical and laboratory-like. The materials used could also evoke imagery from the hi-fi domain. The recording is played back through a sort of loudspeaker. In a very quiet setting, the fans themselves can be heard. This sterile setup is interrupted by the aura captured in the wind recording. What remains of it—in the Benjaminian sense—still carries through, even in its technical reproduction. Not as a tactile sensation on the skin, nor as an olfactory impression, but as something visually, intellectually, and emotionally perceptible.