Michael James Freedman · Moving-image studies
Urban Wind Explorations
These are five studies of a virtual wind tunnel I made to start exploring what happens in urban environments where wind whips around corners and creates turbulent eddies that we feel but don't see. The idea is to create a visualization that uses animation to make people understand the way that smooth flows turn turbulent and once quiet streets become maelstroms.
In all of these, we have two layers of wind, a slower ground level wind and a faster upper wind, simulating what happens in cities where the buildings block the wind, but there's a free area above the height of most buildings where wind blows faster. At the lower level, we release black smoke, and at the higher, faster level, we release red. In the pulsed versions, we use equal pulses of smoke to show movement, so one can see where the wind is faster.
It's an imperfect visualization, and not fully accurate, but it's meant to give you a sense of what is happening.
Inside the alley
I'm trying to capture what it feels like to be in a street surrounded by buildings where wind hits the edge at an oblique angle. We start inside the alley, and then zoom out to show what's happening. Notice that one side of the alley has strong wind and the other is quiet.
29 seconds · Silent film
Four views, two comparisons
The same camera move follows continuous and pulsed smoke through the full alley and past the first tall building on its own. Each film runs for 29 seconds.
Alley · Continuous
Steady smoke traces the airflow between a taller windward row and a shorter opposite row.
Alley · Pulsed
The smoke switches on for half a second and off for half a second, while the wind stays continuous.
Single building · Continuous
Only the first tall building remains, with a steady release of smoke.
Single building · Pulsed
Half-second pulses make the moving smoke easier to follow around the same isolated building.