Spoke about possibility of mounting spectroheliostats at the top of turbine masts. The orientation is West, possibly South West. Need to check on Google Earth. The blades will interrupt the beam of light making it appear intermittent. T. thought this might confuse and irritate people. I doubt it but I have questions.

Would it be regular? Do the blades turn at a constant speed?

Then there is the added problem that the masts move or sway at the top up to a metre. What would that do to our calibrations?

Consult with John V.

T. said that communications with locals wasn’t too good. They don’t understand what Narec is and it is difficult to explain this to them. I said I didn’t really understand either, actually whether Narec just tested and prototyped or made elements of machines. T explained that Narec is a Facility Service, a test house, a quasi academic institution there to provide services that smaller companies or even commercial companies couldn’t provide for themselves because of large expense. They can serve at a test house for prototypes providing services that would be too costly for every company to build in house. Good way of keeping costs down by centralising and sharing the use of these facilities.

They were planning to build a huge new building for testing turbine blades. The project was called Fujin after the Japanese god of winds. Building 30m high slab side and 72.5 metres long. The problem was that the building would be a featureless grey block in the landscape and wouldn’t be welcomed by the local community. He suggested I think about beautifying it.

Later in the evening I had some interesting thoughts. Whatever is done with the building should relate to wind, possibly use wind.

At Narec, Julie asks us to wait in a large room just outside conference room until it’s my turn to speak. When I am taken in, there is a good welcoming round of applause. I say hello and begin. The technology is perfect and no problems arise with the projections or presentation. I hardly use my notes and feel that I have a good and large audience, always a source of inspiration. I speak about my work beginning with Liquid Reflections, Moonmeme and Whirling Wind Tower and end with my recent work resulting from my Space Sciences Laboratory residency.

Afterwards, we all speak to various people, from the company Ceo, Andrew Mill to the engineers and staff whom we had met at the Clothier Lab to the Lead Program Manager of the Wind Turbine department, Trevor Hardcastle. He tells me he has climbed up the inside of a wind turbine and that no one realises the scale of these structures. This is exactly what I want  to show people: their scale. We talk about Solar Hills seen from the tops of the Wind Turbines and what a great effect that could have. We agree to meet in the next 3 weeks to discuss this.

The CEO and I speak about material science. He explains that diamonds are being used for high voltage switches because their internal structure allows very high voltages to pass through them without damaging their structure.

Ian Williamson, Marine test engineer comes and speaks to us, telling me how much he enjoyed my talk. He is with another colleague who also found my talk inspiring. They ask me what I will do at Narec. I tell them I want to familiarise myself with their activities and processes. I would like to try to portray their transdeucing of natural energies through the media of film, He tells me that I must speak to Alan Waggitt (Technical) and Steven Wilson who is the Head of that Department.

This is exciting. I feel that I need now to visit Narec quite soon again and follow up on these brief introductory meetings.

At 2pm we were at Hebden, meeting Alex, Steve, Nicky and her photographer. We did some photographs –without makeup but my bruises (from my studio fall) were still very visible and weird looking, so Nicky made me up and we repeated the shoot.

Close up standing on the huge transformer platforms, I saw different things, details I hadn’t really noticed – the light reflecting off the rippling glaze of the ceramic bushes. Alex explained that the ripples on these ‘bushings’ are designed to lengthen them electrically. They create more surface area making the ‘bushings’ 3 or 4 times longer than they appear, a bit like coastlines, in that you measure them, not as the bird flies but, as if you walked along them following their wiggly contours. What are ‘bushings’. Ceramic insulators that prevent the large electrical voltage passing through their middle from escaping out.

Narec stands for New and Renewable Energy Centre. They are being government funded ( received £30m, want 100m) to help inventors and designers, companies who have innovative ideas for using wind, wave and tidal energy. Narec facilitate the development of their ideas, test and build prototypes and help obtain funding. Steve takes us out for a walk around the facility. A large yard with two basins – wave and tidal energy docks – that can be filled with water. No testing seems to be occurring but the luminous colours and simple forms ask to be photographed. Steve cannot allow this and we have our first discussion about what I can and cannot do. He agrees to obtain permission for me to photograph on my next visit. But will I have this same brilliant light again?

We head off to Hebben to meet Alex at the Clothier Laboratory.

This is a huge box of a building 100’ high. The testing space is about 25 x 35 metres across. Alex is held up at Narec’s offices and we are shown around by Allen Edwards a senior engineer, who has worked 30 years with the company. Standing in their glass panelled balcony overlooking the huge testing space filled with strange looking apparatus, Alan explains the electrical testing machinery, the bushings and glass insulator strings, the risks of electrical overvoltage ‘pollution’ flashovers and how they are prevented using cheap and simple flu lining.

‘Millions of volts are being tested, volts not current,’ he keeps reminding us. We ask for more detailed explanations. ‘Power,’ he explains, ’but not the flow, not the flow of electric current.’

We descend onto the main floor of this immense space, the largest electrical testing lab in Europe, if not the world. Alan is exuberant. He gushes with information. Here photography is allowed. Afterall, he explains, I am not a competitor. Interestingly, simple materials and methods are readily mixed and used with hi tech complex ones, ie. Flu linings to dampen the corona effect, fibreglass doughnuts…so much information. I cannot possibly digest it all in one visit.

We are taken into the offices where we meet three women engineers as well as two more men. They all have something to say. They are friendly. We have already met six out of the twelve people working there. In the offices we chatted and I told them how I had worked at BICC, using the Waveguide machine to make my own work. Waveguide was a new telecommunications system that was then superseded by fibre optics. They all seem interested. I tell Alan that I would like to be there during a test to see high voltage discharges. He laughs and replies that they only occur when the equipment is faulty. Then he promises to let me know.

One interesting fact I learned was that AC voltage was used to carry electricity across densely populated areas whereas DC was used for large distances with low population density.

We then met Wendy Scott, my client at Inspire Northumberland who showed us some of their projects along the beachfront.

Rebecca thought I might focus on the Clothier Laboratory, where the engineers we had met had shown an interest in my work. Nonetheless, I would like to find out more about the renewable energy fields before I focus in on anything.