2010-10-29
The Beauty Of Power Lines
The broadcast of BBC Four’s Secret History of the National Grid has, as you may have noticed, regenerated my interest in electricity pylons (partly aided by Joe Moran).
In Alain de Botton’s The Pleasures and Sorrows Of Work, there’s an entire chapter on transmission infrastructure. In it, he mentions two notable books. One is apparently a Korean guide to pylons around the world, which, annoyingly, I have yet to track down.
However, the other, “De schoonheid van hoogspanningslijnen (in het Nederlandse landschap)”, or “The Beauty of Electricity Pylons in the Dutch Landscape”, definitely exists. Here’s an excerpt of a translation of the description:
An often heard opinion is that power lines the horizon visual pollution. The compilers of this publication believe that a conscious way of looking at other aspects of the power line to be apparent, and often there is a certain beauty. The beauty can both relate to the mast itself as the perspective effect of a beautifully designed range and how to measure the line indicates the underlying landscape. Preceded by a brief explanation about the function and typology of high-voltage lines, looks at the problems of designing a line entails.
I’d love to see a translation of the work; I suspect it’s not worth learning Dutch for by itself. It’s also great to see a re-appreciation of human creations as beauty - in the National Gallery there’s a Turner painting of Maidenhead Bridge being crossed by a steam locomotive, as well as a French picture of a railway station. More like this, please.
