The Singing Ringing Tree is a wind-powered sound sculpture located on the hilltops of Burnley, UK. It was completed in 2006, and it was one of the four sculptures within a project known as the ”Panopticons”.
The sculpture is 3 meters tall and it consists of galvanized steel which harnesses the energy of the wind to produce sound. As the wind passes through the pipes, the sculpture plays a slightly discordant set of chords based on the direction and the velocity of the wind. Locals claim that it has never played the same melody twice. While some of the pipes produce sounds others are primarily visual elements.
In 2007, the Singing Ringing Tree won the National Award of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for architectural excellence.
After the original tree in the UK, a second Singing Ringing Tree was built in Texas, United States. But despite the fact that the sculpture’s position has been optimized to maximize the wind blowing through the pipes, the sculpture is mostly silent, and the reason why the tubes don’t produce sound is unknown. A third sculpture was also built in Saudi Arabia but the exact location is unknown.
