Tag Archives: culture

Solved! – The Great Blade Conspiracy #Hull2017 #CityofCulture

Leave a reply

Back in January I wrote about how the turbine blade, which was in Hull City Centre briefly, looked photoshopped in every picture I saw of it. It even looked photoshopped in real life, which was quite odd.

Read my original post here.

Now, researchers at the University of Lincoln have found that it’s all a trick of the light, with the blade lit from the side whilst our brains are thinking that it surely must be lit from above by the sun.

Read the research article here. Or, read the BBC article here.

The Great Blade Conspiracy #Hull2017 #CityofCulture

2 Replies

For the last couple of weeks photographs have been emerging from Hull’s Queen Victoria Square of a 250ft (75m in pre-Brexit measurements) wind turbine blade. There was even minute by minute coverage of its movements from the Siemens factory, across town, before settling in its final position straddling the toilets on top of which Victoria surveys her former Empire.

However, I am yet to visit this so-called blade, one of a triumvirate that characterise the ‘devil’s helicopters’, and I can’t help but feel that all the photographs I have seen have actually been photoshopped. Consider this photo below taken by Sam Spain –

c2msgjxuoaehp7s

It is obvious to my eye that the blade is not actually there. It has very clearly been added in after the photo was taken and not very well too. Just look at all the people going about their business and not fleeing in terror which would be the natural reaction to such an awe inspiring object.

Further evidence was provided to this conspiracy when it emerged that planning permission had not be sought for the blade. Why would anyone, willingly or otherwise, flout the edicts of our brave Development Control teams and risk the wrath of Planning Enforcement?

Ok. Enough of that. The blade is obviously there and even though I have yet to see it in person it looks incredible. However, every picture I see of it does look like its been photoshopped. My guess was that the blade will be incredibly smooth for aerodynamics reasons, allowing the wind to flow past it with little resistance – the way this lack of texture reflects the light into the lens look unnatural to us.

I asked the University of Hull’s Science guru, Prof Mark Lorch, for his thoughts on Twitter. Here is what he said –

“I’m thinking it’s because, if the lack of feature, high contrast with surrounding buildings, & sharp lines plus whiteness makes it difficult to expose both the blade and surrounding area… …but really plus it is in fact a giant conspiracy perpetrated by the goof folks of Hull.”

I knew it! It was a conspiracy all along!

If you can help us shed further light (and reflect it oddly) on the photoshopped blade mystery, please let us know.

 

 

 

Made In Hull – City of Culture Kick Off #Madeinhull #hull2017 #CityofCulture

1 Reply

It’s 2017 and Hull’s big year is finally here. It all started with a huge fireworks display from two barges in the Estuary, which we watched from the top of a hill on the south bank having now repatriated myself as a “yellow-belly”. The opening week has been marked by “Made in Hull” – a series of light projection exhibits around the City Centre, focused on Queen Victoria Square where the crowds are immersed by projections on the City Hall, Feren’s Art Gallery and the Maritime Museum.

The first video here shows a brief snippet of the light show on Hull’s The Deep aquarium, standing where the Hull’s eponymous river flows into the Humber Estuary.

This next video shows the Hull Blitz segment from the main display in Queen Victoria Square. It’s difficult to convey the power of this piece, the chilling hush that descends over the crowd as the word “war” is repeated, the noise and the atmosphere of the search lights ahead. It’s only a small measure of what the terror of living in the most bombed city outside of London must have been like.

Made in Hull has been utterly superb and a very fitting start to 2017 – if it continues like this we’re in for a fantastic City of Culture year.

WE ARE HULL