Drax Power Station
6 September 2006
REPORT
Dr. John Stell , Principal Investigator for CCASE-NET, introduced the theme for the day: Sublime Engineering. The theme reflected the type of presentations which linked art and engineering to create often spectacular structures. Drax Power station is such a structure, arguably a work of art as well as a power station.
Images of Drax Power Station
Drax power station was chosen as the focus for this 5 th CCASE- NET Event after a successful brief visit as part of the first Event led to requests for a more extensive exploration of the phenomenal structure of the plant. Drax Power Station is the largest, cleanest and most efficient coal-fired power station in the UK . The output capacity of its six generators is 4,000 megawatts, and it currently provides enough power to meet 7% of the UK 's electricity needs. It has a strong commitment to supporting the local community and environmental clean up. It was recovering from a relatively ill informed protest group camping outside the perimeter and creating huge security issues.
The day included a tour of the Power Station, including its experimental alternative fuels area, and an opportunity to engage with others from different disciplines.
The objective of our CCASE- NET workshops is to draw together researchers across the traditional boundaries of the arts, humanities, sciences and technologies and to explore the possibility of novel research projects. We had 6 speakers during the day, including artists, scientists and critical commentators, and a wide-ranging group of participants from arts, science and engineering backgrounds.
The programme included discussion sessions which enabled participants to share reactions and reflections and to identify new projects, initiatives or collaborations.
The specific objectives for the day were:
- to explore how engineering is used by artists, both as technology to realize artworks and as culture to interact with or comment on.
- to explore how art is used by engineers, both as a source of technical challenges and as a means of communicating the creativity of engineering.
- to understand how the different perspectives of artists and of engineers lead to opportunities and challenges for joint projects.
He reflected that in the past there was not the division between artists and scientists as is now. If we focus on creativity which is shared by artists and scientists we perhaps should focus on the process of creativity and not the end product and in so doing perhaps we will find that there is no clear distinction between theartist and the scientist. He illustrated this through reference to his own research interests: the theory of spatial information as applied to artificial intelligence and geographical information systems ( GIS ).
Prof. Richard Williams gave a presentation about Claytronics – Creative Electronic Clay; how to create things from particles. These programmable particles became simple robots which interacted to create real objects. Nature provides examples of this. The uses for this technology are seemingly endless; for example, for battlefield modelling, synthetic conferencing, art & entertainment, training design, rescue and manufacturing.
Rob Ward spoke about Engineering Sculpture and his recent work making large public sculptures. His current work responds to the built environment with pieces that are architectural in conception, dealing with simplified forms reminiscent of specific places or buildings. He showed examples of his work and reflected on some of the challenges in making work out of stone and stainless steel.
Designs for the Catch the Wind Proposal by Rob Ward
Steven Edge presented a paper on The Engineering of Art. Stephen is a designer who has worked in multi-disciplinary design teams for 40 years; he has a keen interest in the forms and processes involved in the creative synergy which occurs when artists, construction contractors and engineers collaborate to create large scale works of art. His presentation drew an analogy between the design and construction processes of architecture, engineering and large scale works of art, using the presenters experience in helping construct Running Fence in California in 1976 as primary case study material.
Photographs of Running Fence by Steven Edge
Dr. Patrick Teuffel , Senior Lecturer in Architectural Engineering, University of Leeds spoke about Architectural Textiles and in particular some recent work in Germany. His current research interests include, Adaptive Systems, Lightweight Structures, Textiles Structures, Application of new materials and Integrated computer-aided design process. Within the presentation he gave a brief overview of architectural textiles from ancient tents to high-tech materials, from wide-span structures to deployable systems.
James G Price , Alternative Fuels Manager, and Paul Straker from Drax gave us fascinating insights into the place, its functions and challenges, particularly it's commitment to minimizing its effects on the environment as part of a low carbon economy include development of the use of alternative fuel sources such as energy crops and forestry materials. This also included the use of alternative fuels for co-firing, a process which involved the blending and burning of biomass materials with coal. Jim showed us his research area where large quantities of biomass were mixed.
Image of Drax Power Station
Outcomes
A third of the members had been to one or more other CCASE-NET events. The members of the Network come from a wide variety of disciplines with a significant number from outside academia. This is enabling groups to emerge to pursue shared interests or ideas. However, it is also becoming clear that when people from different disciplines come together it takes longer to form concrete proposals than for those with shared language, background and processes.
We agreed that we should collect these reflections and the range of interesting and diverse contributions into a publication in order to inform the debate on creative processes and frameworks for judging and assessing these inter-disciplinary interactions and research proposals.
We are intending to concentrate on these issues at our next event.
Some specific outcomes
Stephen Edge and David Cottridge were able to continue discussions started at Gunpowder Park towards a collaborative proposal.
Ruud Kuijer was encouraged to make an application to the Bright Sparks initiative at Gunpowder Park.
Richard Williams and Patrick Teuffel are to explore applications of new materials, particularly the durability and safety of flexible materials.
There was great interest in the opportunities offered by Claytronics and many members would like to learn more about how it works and potential applications
To establish a Group on art and engineering in order to continue the discussions of the days specific objectives with the aim of developing specific art and engineering proposals.
Jim Price agreed to send links to some of the material used in his presentation to a number of delegates, including Gordon Andrews (who we discovered had begun his working life at Drax Power). There will be potential here with the emerging CO2 initiative in the UII Earth Energy & Environment.
Tobie Kerridge offered to make a contribution to the final CCASE-NET event arising from his EPSRC Bio-jewellery project and to link into our network for a forthcoming proposal (again funded through EPSRC, this time via an Ideas factory session) which seeks to strike up contemplative collaborations between engineers and designers.
The mining and quarrying theme continued from Magpie Mine and the National Coal Mining Museum events and members will be able to contribute to the Contested Landscapes Group which emerged from the Magpie Mine event and to the group which is emerging relating to the after use of Tarmac's quarry at Threshfield, North Yorkshire .