Land of Giants turns power lines into works of art
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted August 15th 2010 8:08AM
posted August 15th 2010 8:08AM
Most of us take the aesthetic nature of power lines and pylons for granted. In fact, it's hard to remember a time before the things crisscrossed the landscape. That's why we were stoked when we came across this concept by Massachusetts-based architects Choi+Shine. Part infrastructure, part public art project, The Land of Giants would "[transform] mundane electrical pylons into statues on the Icelandic landscape," by modifying existing steel-framed tower designs to create human-shaped towers that are repositioned for a wide variety of expressions (a number of which can be seen after the break). We love this idea, and we hope it gets implemented somewhere, if only to blow the minds of the people that will have to rebuild civilization after the impending Robot Apocalypse.
So it begins: http://xkcd.com/556/
@someguy7234
Amazing.
xkcd is some of the funniest shit out there.
@someguy7234
Ugh I hate all this art BS. Why would you waste more money to construct an unsafe structure that doesn't even look that good.
I think that's a brilliant idea. There's no denying pylons are ugly as sin..
@fpad77
The better solution is to get rid of these altogether and figure out some way to use laser induction to beam it onto a satellite and back to the earth.
Unfortunately also constructing a death ray for some megalomaniac to try and seize but we'll deal with that when the time comes.
@fpad77
You must construct additional [beautiful] pylons.
@fpad77 i honestly think they look nice in a wierd sort of way.
@Mr M The moai of the modern world perhaps....
@fpad77 This reminds me of a concept where forest clearcuts in BC would be in pleasing shapes like giant animal paw prints. I don't think that ever happened either.
@TinWard UM DARPA already did it.
I think it's look like Steve Jobs.
@2235423
what???, im not going to downrank you, but im pretty sure your going to be taking a one way trip to oblivion :P
@2235423
Um, sure ... once the T1000s rip all of his flesh off.
Those things don't look structurally sound, especially in high wind.
Also, I thought Iceland was broke. How can they afford this?
@Smart People Play Tuba
As someone from the UK it's nice to know my tax money was spent wisely.
@Smart People Play Tuba
it was probably funded by bjork
@R2 D2
+1
@Smart People Play Tuba
Its just a concept. I doubt they are going to do this anytime soon (if they do it at all).
@Smart People Play Tuba Iceland is broke. This is a fantasy. Too practical to ever be built.
I like how exactly 50% of the people on this thread have Star Wars-related avatars . . .
New Olympics logo.
look at them from left to right and it's like a man going through the stages of depression
@bokeH More like the Hulk slowly being transformed.
They need to make them doing the YMCA.
Why is there idiots that always have to say something about apple or steve. Get a life looser.
@iPhone209 haha learn how to spell LOSER :p
@casik
Looooooooooser
@iPhone209 FAEL
"The Land of Giants would "[transform] mundane electrical pylons into statues on the Icelandic landscape," by modifying existing steel-framed tower designs to create human-shaped towers"
Joseph, check your font usage here, and correct - at the moment it looks a little amateur.
As for the pylon concepts themselves; they're pretty interesting, but I think that I would be a little creeped out if I saw them everywhere - perhaps they could be a feature across some well-traversed path of desert though.
Future archeologists will think we worshipped giant, metallic stick people. Maybe they should re-excavate Easter Island and look for long overgrown cables between the monuments.
I jest, I jest.
@grub wait till they unearth Burning Man....
Pfft, they'll just look silly when wireless electricity gets somewhere.
When I was a child, I had this reoccurring nightmare that a series of huge power pylons would come alive, lay down their wires and menacingly march through the night. Once they found my house, they would use their huge pylon legs to crush my house to splinters, along with me and my entire family inside.
Needless to say, these things scare the shit out of me.
I like them, but they probably won't get implemented, because they are non-standard and the union workers probably will not repair electricity on them.
@cditty
well, the icelandic electrician union can't be that big and they could use some employment programs there anyhow.
I don't think that the icelandic folk view power lines as that big of a problem, there' aren't that many of them there anyways. and if you're going for cool look, they could do much better than these stick figures.
Stupid idea: destroys any efficiency in being able to service them.
So do we call these "cylons?"
I had a dream just like this, except I was naked in a grassy field and...nevermind. Artists suck.
They're cool and all but they distract from the beauty of the scenery more than regular power lines. We're used to ignoring the current design but these will be hard to ignore.
Work of art? No, more like amusing modern structure.
Nice but stupid -not surprisingly designed by architects, not engineers. Always the same story.
These are a great idea....so much better than ugly grey metal things! One of the beaches near me has been completely ruined with the horrible monstrosities so it will be refreshing to turn what is necessary into something artful at the same time.
I, for one, welcome our new artistic pylon overlords