Heat Exchangers
Solar panels When I was a kid in the 70’s solar was a buzz. Companies were springing up all over and there were generous federal incentives to put solar panels on your home. It looked like some large steps to decreasing the hard energy policies were being taken. Then I remember there was a propaganda campaign that spread like wild fire that claimed solar panels took more energy to make them than they would ever produce and that they were ugly.
So, essentially, if you put a solar panel on your house you were a fool that had no taste. This along with the end of government incentives killed the solar and renewable energy movement for the next 8 years and slowed it even now. Is a home ugly with or without solar panels? How much energy does it take to make a solar panel? These are functional solar panels made with over 70% repurposed materials.
Duration {1.25 hours} Temperature {112 degrees fahrenheit} Copper tubing, bronze sheet, glass from house window, aluminum angle, leftover foam insulation, solder, silicone, and salvaged stainless steel
Duration {1.25 hours} Temperature {111 degrees fahrenheit} Copper tubing, bronze dust from finishing bronze sculptures, polyester resin, scrap Teak and Spanish Cedar, silicone, and glass from house
Thermal Solar Collector #3 Duration {1.25 hours} Temperature {114 degrees fahrenheit} Copper tubing, copper sheet, solder, aluminum foil, glass from house window, aluminum angle, fiberglass, gel coat, resin, silicone, solder, and leftover cellular structural sheet
Heat Exchanger Aluminum parts from my retired Ford Explorer, copper pipe, cedar, foam insulation, aluminized silicon, and repurposed tempered glass This thermal solar panel is designed to transfer the sun's heat to domestic hot water. It will be stored in my yard heating water for washing and bathing.
The title of this piece comes from the common 2-year old question, "Why?". It is also a common question that I ask myself. Questioning the motivation of this piece answered "Because. . ."
functional heat exchanger Fabricated steel
Polished boulder from my yard. As common in New England, my yard is filled with stones deposited here by glaciers during the Ice Age. Many of them are stacked into walls and others are spread about by these forces long gone. Some of them are partially buried in the lawn and inadvertently I grind over them with the mower, leaving the top surfaces marred.
Polished boulder from my yard. Within a fraction of a second and the help of fossil fuels, I have weathered the rock more than in the last 100,000 years. Geological time is harder to imagine than infinity.
Polished boulder from my yard. The stones live in a reality that is much more accurate than ours. They are formed in amazing amounts of heat and pressure and then break up into smaller and smaller pieces until they are just part of the soil and then start over again. Humans have been speeding up their perception of time by speeding up their ability to move through space.
Polished boulder from my yard. And now we can virtually move through space with live video communications at the speed of light. And apparently we are responsible for the current speeding of geological time. When I polish the stones I am apologizing to them for bringing them into human time with my mower and thanking them for their persistent beauty.
Polished boulder from my yard.
Polished boulders from my yard
Improvised Armor
620 lbs., the steel drive train of my retired Ford Explorer
Improvised Armor My improvised armor pieces are a visual reminder that unconscious defense mechanisms are counter to reality. Building defenses is a natural reaction to a threat. Physically the defense is to shield against the danger whether it is bullets or extreme weather. However psychological defenses shield against uncomfortable ideas and change.
Improvised Armor II: Countertop Test Slabs Concrete, concrete colorant, stones from yard, glass, epoxy resin, and steel reinforcement. Defense mechanisms such as denial, rationalization, sublimation, and displacement shield from reality.
Improvised Armor III: Countertop Test Slabs Concrete, concrete colorant, stones from yard, epoxy resin, and steel reinforcement