Flow

Film by Alan Fentiman
Photo by Jill Tate

FLOW

~Flow, by Owl Project and Ed Carter, was a tidemill – a floating building on the River Tyne generating its own power using a tidal water wheel.  The building housed electro acoustic musical machinery and instruments responding to the constantly changing environment of the river, generating sound and data.

~Flow spanned artforms, blending contemporary and traditional methods, combining sculpture, cutting edge technology, hand crafted wooden instruments, architecture, precision engineering and electronic music to create an astonishing audio-visual public artwork. Everyone’s experience of ~Flow was unique, as the instruments responding directly to the ever-changing state of the river.

Over 40,000 people visited the free-to-board artwork, which was moored on the Newcastle quayside from March-September 2012, created as part of Artists taking the lead, one of twelve large-scale public art commissions funded by the UK Arts Councils celebrating the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Collaborators:
Ed Carter – Project lead (original concept and producer)
Owl Project – Artistic lead
Nicky Kirk – Architect
Beth Bate, Tom Higham, Nicola Singh – Programme curation and production
David Willcox – Waterwheel designer
Amble Boat Company – Construction
Buro Happold – Structural engineers

Commissioners:
Arts Council England

Links:
Owl Project
Nicholas Kirk Architects