The Wind Tunnel Model: Transdisciplinary Encounters

Where does the wind go when it is not blowing? With The Wind Tunnel Model, artist and scientist Florian Dombois proposes new forms of interaction between art and science.

Key to this project is Dombois’s wind tunnel laboratory at Zurich University of the Arts. With an empty test platform, the laboratory is a compelling example of architecture that turns its back on its occupants, forming an invisible, yet disturbingly concrete, secondary model.

The Wind Tunnel Model features essays by Dombois and his collaborators, reflecting on this innovative concept for transdisciplinary collaboration. Together, they present a new model of interaction in artistic research and creation—the “man engine,” a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in mines to assist miners between different levels, a mechanism that also serves as a metaphor for work at the wind tunnel laboratory. At the cutting edge of transdisciplinary research and education, The Wind Tunnel Model will forge a new path to creative production.
 

Florian Dombois is a Zurich-based artist and scientist. He is professor and head of research on transdisciplinary studies at Zurich University of the Arts.