1950 -Kees Schrerer
Cycling into the wind: struggling and battling against a force that picks up from the southwest and shows no signs of calming down anytime soon. In the Netherlands, it’s inevitable. For some, a tailwind is a blessing. For others, a headwind is a setback. We love to complain about it can be something that turns out to be a great conversation starter. There’s a lot to it when it comes to Dutch weather: plenty of rain coming in from the sea, cold winds, and, of course, those typical Dutch skies. Sometimes this kind of weather and wind feels unpredictable, so we turn to the weather app and say things like, “It shouldn’t be raining right now,” even as it’s pouring. When was the last time you consciously noticed where the wind was coming from? Or what kind of weather the wind was bringing with it? Instead of looking at an arrow and a number on a screen, people spent centuries carefully observing the landscape and the atmosphere to predict the weather.4 In the era before the Industrial Revolution, people in the Netherlands were heavily dependent on the weather and the wind. Farmers, millers, and sailors developed a sophisticated understanding of weather changes, cloud formations, and wind directions. This attention to and dependence on the weather and wind fostered a close connection with nature, in which people followed the rhythm of the wind. For a long time, the miller served as an example of a way of life attuned to natural forces, but this way of life is slowly fading away.(1,2) Whereas the careful observation of clouds and the wind was once a magical method for understanding our own environment, it is now replaced by global, large-scale weather models. (3)
This essay explores the relationship between humans and the wind in Dutch history. It investigates how we have lost our connection to the elements and how our connection to the wind can form a philosophical basis for a life lived in harmony with nature. As an example of this, I also highlight other wind-driven (indigenous) cultures in the essay. As a designer, I further ask how we can reshape our kinships and relationships with the wind.
The human and the wind
The wind was there long before we arrived and, together with water and other forces of nature, shaped the landscape where you now find yourself in. Our ancestors first settled in the area we later came to call Doggerland 6, guided by the wind. Here, Neanderthals lived in a low-lying landscape of forests, wetlands and lakes. Back then, some 300,000 years ago, the North Sea was still largely dry. The wind had free rein here and blew sand further inland, slowly laying the foundation for our current sandy plains and beaches.9 After the last ice age, the water level rose due to a global warming, and the North Sea was formed. It was during this period that the wind we know today began to shape our landscape. During the Holocene (beginning around 9000 BCE), wind and water began to shape the landscape together, resulting in the formation of the well-known sandy coasts.9 The people who lived in this landscape had a mythical relationship with the forces of nature.8 Prayers, offerings, and rituals were used to keep the nature gods in good favor. At that time, forms of what we now call animism were practiced. This belief system held that the forces of nature were conscious and possessed their own will. The uncontrollability and unpredictability of these elements were deeply rooted in their philosophy. At that time, the wind was not explained as an objective natural phenomenon but was interpreted in the form of spirits and gods with their own habits. This allowed meaningful connections to develop between humans and their environment. With the rise of agriculture, beginning around 5000 BCE, humans began to alter the landscape more and more. Forests gave way to fields and pastures.9 At the same time, this allowed the wind to regain free rein. As the hunter-gatherer way of life gave way to an agricultural society, we became more dependent on local weather conditions for good harvests. It is likely that nature gods symbolizing fertility, characterized by good weather, were also worshipped during this period. It is likely that during this period we also began using the wind as a power source for transportation.29 This developed across multiple cultures to such an degree that, by around 3000 BCE, larger sailing ships with paddle rigs existed along the entire Atlantic coast. From Norway and Sweden, Norse and Germanic culture was rapidly spread by the Vikings. The wind helped to accelerate the spread of stories, myths, and beliefs. Influences included, for example, the Norse and Germanic myths about Njord 10, the god of wind, sea, and seafaring. A god who was unaware of evil. Njord was a wealthy man who could grant favors or land and come to the aid of seafarers or fishermen. The Romans also brought with them the cardinal wind directions, which originated in Greek culture. These four or eight wind directions can be found independently in all sorts of different cultures. The Romans introduced the Venti, which were derived from the Greek Anemoi. These were four brothers: Boreas, Notus, Euros, and Zephyrus, who were guarded by the god Aeolus. Boreas, the personification of the north wind, was said to bring favorable winds to sailors, though he could also bring winter. Boreas is often paired with Zephyrus, or “Zefier” in Dutch. "Zefier" is associated with a favorable westerly wind. This wind is ideal for Dutch water transport because it fills the sails of smaller ships well when blowing from the west, which could bring prosperity. The four or eight cardinal wind directions are found in (indigenous) cultures almost everywhere in the world. The characteristics of the personifications of these wind directions vary from one culture to another because the conditions that create them depend on the location. These personifications served as a tool for understanding the wind and the weather it brought. This tradition persisted longer in Christian culture in the Netherlands during the Middle Ages, where they were depicted as angels steering the wind with horns. The four archangels Uriel (north wind), Michael (south wind), Raphael (east wind), and Gabriel (west wind) are a good example of this.
“Verre windstreken”
Faraway lands As folks moved through the Dutch landscape, there were many different ways and especially narrative structures for understanding the forces of nature as a strategy for prosperity. Of course, this doesn’t happen only in this landscape. A good example on the other side of the globe is Polynesian navigation.16 Polynesian seafarers traveled thousands of kilometers across the open ocean to navigate between the island groups in the vast ocean without any instruments. They used a sophisticated, orally passed down celestial navigation system that allowed them to determine their location based on the rising and setting of various star clusters. On a scale of islands separated by more than thousands of kilometers, understanding the wind is crucial. A Polynesian seafarer had to be able to remember and recognize certain high winds (Ko’olau) at their current location.(17,18) In this culture, sailing is not just about getting further away; it is deeply rooted in a specific location, where you learn to recognize the journey you undertake, the winds, stars, and waves you encounter along the way, and thus use this knowledge to find your way back. In this culture, understanding the wind is an intuitive process in which the canoe and the body act as extensions of the experience of feeling the wind and waves. The Polynesians view their practice of working with the elements as a holistic endeavor. The stories told within the culture form the foundation of the seafarers’ skills. For a long time, Polynesian culture was suppressed and nearly lost due to Westernization and colonization. In 1975, the traditional vessel (pahi) Hokule’a was rebuilt and, with the help of Micronesian master navigator Mau Piailug, sailed in the traditional way.19 This led to a rediscovery of indigenous culture and, with it, a renewed appreciation of traditional practices. How might we once again make room for the wind through mythical and magical ancient stories, or ways of life that once existed in this landscape?
The Miller
In addition to sail-powered transport, wind was also used as a source of power for manufacturing in the Netherlands around 1300. The first Western European windmills appeared in the Netherlands around 1221 in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. During the 14th century, more and more windmills were built in the Netherlands, primarily for milling grain, and around the 15th century, the first windmills designed to drain polders were constructed. (21) Managing water with wind was a specialty. The Dutch had always struggled with water, but perhaps we managed to overcome that to some extent with the power of the wind. For example, during the reclamation of the Beemster polder in 1607, no fewer than 43 windmills were used to pump out the water. (20)
Alongside the development of windmill technology, there was also a cultural evolution. It was no longer just agriculture and water transport that depended on the weather, but also productive capacity. This dependence on nature’s immediate resources gave rise to a new way of life that took root in nearly every village or town. Working with a windmill meant constantly negotiating with a force that could not be controlled. It required keen attention and observation of cloud patterns, wind directions, and signals from the landscape to achieve the necessary output. (22,23) It is a problem that, of course, the wind does not always blows on land. As a result, millers sometimes had to work day and night for several days in a row when the wind was blowing to produce the right amount of a product. (22,23)
If there is no Weather app, satellite, or computer-generated weather model available to predict the weather for you, how do you build a life based on the force of the wind?
Just as with the cardinal wind directions and millennia-old observations, Dutch culture also featured hundreds of sayings, proverbs, and centuries-old folk meteorological methods for predicting the local weather. The remains of these traditions are all kinds of sayings. You can “go with the wind,” “throw something to the wind,” “take the wind out of someone’s sails,” “go with the flow,” “have the wind at your back,” and “get some fresh air.” (“Je kan voor de wind gaan, iets in de wind slaan, iemand de wind uit de zeilen nemen, met alle winden mee draaien, er de wind onder hebben en eventjes uitwaaien.”) I think I could fill a book with these, and some of them aren’t even that far-fetched to use when you want to express yourself clearly. Their origins stem from a way of life that was extremely dependent on the weather and the wind. Weather proverbs are a collection of sayings used in folk meteorology to predict which way the wind would blow or what kind of season would come with it. These sayings are based on centuries-old observations passed down through generations, often orally; as a result, they need to be easy to remember and sometimes even rhyme. Weather proverbs are grounded in observations that take a holistic view of the weather. They examine changes in the behavior of clouds, stars, wind, animals, plants, and people to predict the weather for the next 12–48 hours, days, and sometimes even months. (26) Below, I’ve compiled a brief collection of these sayings to provide an overview.
Kleine skôpjes, grote drôpkes (26)
“Small sheep, big Drops”
Refers to a cirrocumulus cloud (3), also known as small sheep-like clouds. This type of cloud generally occurs in a low-pressure system that causes warm air to rise. This creates small clouds due to an uneven distribution of warm air and, consequently, the saturation of moisture in the air. This can only mean one thing… a storm!
Wees voor een weeromslag niet beducht,
als er geen wind is in de lucht. (26)
“Don’t worry about a change in the weather
if there’s no wind in the air.”
The wind is often a sign of a weather change. If there is little wind, this will result in stable weather, which often forms in high-pressure systems.
'morgens een kind
'middags een vent
'avonds an het end’ (26)
“A child in the morning,
a man in the afternoon,
and at the end of the day”
A north wind has a strong daily cycle.
‘Wind in de nacht
water in de gracht’ (24)
“Wind at night, water in the canal”
If the wind picks up during the night, there is a chance that a low-pressure system (with a warm front) is approaching, and so a chance of rain. (4)
Hoe losser de wind, hoe vaster weer.’ (26)
“The lighter the wind, the more stable the weather.”
Wind is a good indicator of changing weather, because differences in atmospheric pressure create wind between low- and high-pressure areas. When the wind is “light,” it means it comes in small gusts and does not produce strong bursts of wind with a clearly defined direction. Lighter winds bring less significant weather changes.
‘Insecten vliegen hoog met mooi weer’ (24)
“Insects fly high in good weather”
Insect activity is a clear indicator of weather changes. On warm, predictable days, they fly high and move about more, whereas on days that bring rain or storms, this does not happen. This is followed by: “Insects fly low when it rains”
‘Gaat de oostenwind tegen de avond liggen
dan waait hij de volgende dag opnieuw’ (26)
“If the east wind dies down toward evening, it will pick up again the next day”
An easterly wind is stable and lasts a long time.
It’s a fairly practical way of looking at the hidden relationships in a landscape, but what’s remarkable is that they’re often correct. In this case, paying attention may actually be more valuable than a mathematical model. The direction and strength of the wind can also be determined by all sorts of things other than an anemometer (an instrument for measuring wind speed). The Beaufort scale also includes accurate descriptions of situations corresponding to each wind force, such as wind force 3: hair gets messed up, and clothing starts to flutter. (27) There are also several terms that are no longer in use, such as “Labberkoelte.”(28) A “Labberkoelte” is a cool breeze that exerts only a little pressure, sometimes dying down and sometimes giving a brief nudge.
“Vergeten waar de wind vandaan komt”
Forgetting where the wind comes fromWhy has our universal connection to the weather and the wind, which used to be so common worldwide, almost completely disappeared today? Enlightenment thinking and the emergence of the scientific method have brought us more knowledge and certainty that we have ever had before. We cannot deny that this has also made us, as humans, more resilient to extreme weather conditions. Nature is explained, measured, and categorized, with rationality replacing the symbolic relationship with the world around us.(29) An ever-growing gap is emerging between scientific knowledge and the everyday experience of weather. I do not think this is due to science itself, but rather to the lack of diversity in forms of knowledge in daily life, where we could also make use of symbolic or magical methods. In doing other wise so, we reduce our environment to objects rather than a web of interconnected relationships.31 During the Industrial Revolution, the wind gradually became obsolete to us, and we slowly replaced it with coal and steam. In the Netherlands, this took quite a while because we were still so dependent on windmills, and this was deeply rooted in our culture. Steam engines arrived much later in the Netherlands than in Belgium, for example. For a long time, there was even a hybrid between steam engines and windmills. (30) Windmill-driven production can be less power-dense than that powered by steam or an internal combustion engine, and our demand for power is infinite. This turns the classic windmills into educational museum pieces or souvenirs on the Dam Square. Fortunately, the old windmills have been preserved and remain a source of Dutch pride; it’s only in the innovation of new windmills that we’ve hit a wall. Their contemporary three-bladed successor is far less well-loved.30 In addition to being less dependent on the wind, we’ve also simply become very good at spending a lot of time indoors and simply ignoring the elements. Even when we do go outside, people hop on an electric bike and ride with their noses first in the wind to the next destination. Wouldn’t it be nice, just for once, to have to work to cycle hard against the wind? The article “From Cave to Cage”(33) describes how we’ve slowly transitioned from being hunter-gatherers living in outdoor settlements to conducting all our activities and entertainment indoors; contact with the outside world has been minimized, making our dependence on the weather and the wind feel somewhat unnecessary. Even though living this way costs us an incredible amount of energy.
The digital age is, of course, a great highlight in this regard. The enormous amount of data available everywhere blinds us to the real interactions with the weather and wind that we could be having around us. We look down all day long, even when we’re checking the weather. At the same time, the only real risk we face if we misjudge the weather is having to walk home with a pair of soggy shoes. We can unlearn the habit of accepting only facts and learn how to form magical, mythical, and mindful relationships with the weather and the wind philosophers have been exploring this for years, and there are already several different theories on the subject.
Philosophical foundations
Even in our time, there are important thinkers who point toward a future in which we live in closer harmony with nature. Glenn Albrechts writes about a new era that will follow the Anthropocene: an era in which humans and their technology are the primary factors shaping the Earth’s surface and the nature that lives on it. The Symbiocene34 is the era that follows, in which the cooperation or symbiosis between humans and nature can be enhanced through technology, allowing our technology to also care for the nature around us. In the Symbiocene, we move from an era of exploitation to an era of restoration, connection, and mutual benefit between humans and ecosystems. We should break down the systems formed during the Industrial Revolution and instead live more in tune with the rhythm of nature.34 From the perspective of the Symbiocene philosophy, the wind is not merely something to be exploited for energy but a force with which a relationship can be built. This shifts the question from how we can use the wind as efficiently as possible to how we might develop ways of coexisting with the wind. Deep ecology34 is another example of how to give shape to this. It is a set of principles that, rather than merely taking an environmental activist position, seeks a “deep connection” with the environment in the pursuit of a connection with nature. Arne Naess describes humans as a species that engages in—and is capable of forming numerous symbolic relationships with its environment, and that these relationships are essential for caring for, paying attention to, and feeling connected to the environment, as well as for the development of “oneself.” Deep ecology is seen as a way of seeking meaning rather than facts. Whereas science, in the form of data and testing, looks only at empirical results, deep ecology is a way of examining the individual and collective meaning of the more than human world. A mountain can serve as a father figure35, the wind as a mother. Naess notes that this is more common in many indigenous cultures. Both Naess and Albrechts do not advocate a return to the past but rather a different attitude toward the world around us. Not controlling the elements, but listening to what they have to tell us.
“Frisse wind”
A breath of fresh airA breath of fresh air and a change for the better would be if we were to somehow come to accept our dependence on nature. That a two-way exchange of supply and demand can emerge, and that we cannot simply deplete nature whenever we please. This dependence doesn’t have to be enormous; it could start as simple as whether or not you’re allowed to drink orange juice, or how you listen to music. Whether its very fast or just a little too slow. With my project, "met de wind", I want to highlight our dependence on and attention to the wind, and in that process, I explore how our connection to the wind can form a philosophical foundation for a life lived in tune with nature. The windmills I’ve created play music at a speed determined by the wind. In addition, I draw attention to the wind through a windmill that can come to you instead of the other way around, and through the interaction you can have with it. If you want the music to play the way you want it to, you’ll have to find the right wind. Maybe you’ll have to wait a day or two, choose a nice high spot, gaze at the clouds a few times a day, or see what kind of insects are floating through the air. And when the wind does pick up, where is it coming from? Can you sense it with your nose or ears, or can you tell by looking at the clouds? The windmills I’ve designed are objects that celebrate living in tune with the wind. I present the windmill in a workshop for children that invites them to learn about wind through play and challenges them to dream of a future where anything is possible with the wind.
Conclusion
The wind has been blowing across this earth for far longer than we have been in this flat landscape. Ever since we first roamed these fields, we have had a mythical relationship with the wind, which thanks to the wind in our sails, has evolved into a diverse and multicultural relationship with the wind. In religion and folk culture, the wind was described in meaningful ways through personifications with diverse characteristics. Stories, sayings, and spells from centuries-old observations served as a guide for recognizing the movements of the atmosphere. This was not only a valuable activity in itself but also a particularly productive way to maintain a life in harmony with the wind. In cultures on the other side of the globe, the same connections exist viewing the elements of wind, water, and clouds as close relations. The miller can serve as a Dutch example of this. We are losing this connection by reducing everything around us to mere objects. We have lost the urgency of living in harmony with the wind as a source of power by becoming dependent on fossil fuels. Meanwhile, our world unfolds in a controlled indoor environment where there is no place for the wind. In the digital age, a number with an arrow next to it is a better indication of the weather than the wind blowing through your hair. Both Naess and Albrechts respond to this loss with a different attitude toward our lived experience; we must focus on mutually maintaining a relationship and forming a deep connection. Through my work, I aim to draw attention to the wind and the connection between humans and the wind that has existed for centuries. I want to give this connection a new twist through my designs. Not alone, but with the wind.
When Pythagoras was asked why humans are on Earth, he replied:
“To gaze upon the heavens” (37)