a Project by Myriel Milicevic & Hanspeter Kadel from 12. August till 08. September 2011
Opening: 11. August 2011 – 19
Subway Station Neukölln in Berlin
In everyday city living, we are surrounded by waste products from our urban infrastructures – heat waste from air conditioners, light pollution emitted from shop windows, vibration caused by heavy traffic and the loud wails of sirens. But these structural leakages are, in essence, a multitude of free power outlets for anyone wishing to collect them, because light, noise, vibration and heat can all be turned back into usable energy.
The project Underground Currents examines the practical as well as theoretical possibilities of an alternative, decentralised supply of energy by asking: How can citizens use these surplus energy supplies? What would local micro-power-networks, where free energy can be collected, distributed and exchanged, look like?
Underground Currents is an installation at the Neukölln, U7-line metro station in Berlin, which makes use of the wind generated by the trains. Small windmills on the platform function as power collectors as the draft of the approaching trains makes them spin.
The generated electricity will be collected and used for the transmission of informative, critical, poetic, and utopian audio recordings about alternative forms of economies, technologies and societies. These recordings can also be heard and read again at energyharvests.org.