Art That Changes Weather

P

ublic art is often controversial, but it rarely has the kind of impact of Inigo Manglano-Ovalle's "Weather Field." The best you can usually hope for is a sculpture that will let you look up Marilyn Monroe's skirt, or will double as a slide. However, "Weather Field" promises to offer not only visual appeal and opportunities to argue about the nature of art, it will actually control the weather.

According to the Santa Monica Daily Press, the sulpture, to be located in Santa Monica's Santa Monica Commons park, will be combrised of 49 twenty-foot-high poles. Each pole will be "capped with contraptions that under normal circumstances would measure wind direction and speed." These contraptions will be propelled by sea breezes, and their movement will create a microclimate above the sclupture."

The city of Santa Monica spent $440,200 on the piece, and they claim that the sculpture's "geometric design [will stand] in sharp relief to the undulating hills and twisting paths envisioned in the park, the turning weather devices are meant to evoke a flock of creatures, each subtly affected by its neighbor."

With its average temperature of between 64 and 72 degrees and an average 340 sunny days a year, we're not quite sure why Santa Monica needs a weather-controlling sculpture, but we do hope that this technology can be harnessed to bring some of Santa Monica's weather to the rest of the country.