St. Paul, the city that has made art out of sidewalks and stop signs, is painting on another canvas even more unusual and somewhat larger: the steam plume emitted by the downtown District Energy plant.
On Tuesday night, a switch was thrown and the plume suddenly was lit by colored LEDs — purple, teal, white — that pulsed to the cadences of poems dialed up by members of the public.
"We're kind of a funky town, that we do things like this," Mayor Chris Coleman told a crowd gathered for the project's kickoff Tuesday at the Science Museum.
It's the first of three lighting displays, each designed by a local artist, that are slated to run a total of nearly eight weeks to illuminate the season's dark nights — as well as raise awareness of the plant's uniquely green energy generating process, used to heat and cool downtown.
"The Plume Project has created an opportunity to use art as it's never been done before," said Ken Smith, president and CEO of District Energy.
"We thought, what a great way to show what the plume really is, water vapor and steam, the by-product of a more efficient energy production system," said Nina Axelson, District Energy's vice president of public affairs.
There have been light shows before. But probably few, if any, projected colored light rhythmically onto puffs of billowing vapor rising from a power plant.
From now through Dec. 8, "Rumblings" will play along the downtown skyline. Designed by Emily Stover, the light display will be keyed to one of six poems randomly called up by the public (by dialing 651-383-1378).
