Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was an important inventor, most known for his work on alternating current.
One of Tesla’s projects, was the tower at his Wardenclyffe facility. This project was the beginning of the “World Wireless System,” which Tesla explained to make “possible not only the instantaneous and precise wireless transmission of any kind of signals, messages or characters, to all parts of the world, but also the inter-connection of the existing telegraph, telephone, and other signal stations without any change in their present equipment”. Had his work been completed, Tesla could possibly have provided everyone with free clean energy. This goal made finding funding for his project difficult, and as a result, the tower was never completed.
This mod employs a counterfactual historical perspective by posing a ‘What-if?’ type question: “What if Wardenclyffe had been fully operational?” The infrastructure and politics of energy are a genuine obstacle towards the development of renewable energy sources. Exploring Wardenclyffe as an alternative demonetized wireless and meterless system helps us to question the ways in which we conceive of our current electrical grid. It rejects capitalism’s desire for infinite profit and highlights that we need to look at the infrastructure of energy itself when considering sustainable alternatives.
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Included in this mod are:
– A player home made to look like the facility (30×20)
– A sim that roughly looks and acts like Nikola Tesla
– A script mod that reduces all energy costs to 0
Several content packs have been used to provide clothing and interior decorations, but this mod can be used without them.
This mod has been created as part of a research master project. For more background, analysis, and design choices, see:
Tara Huisman. Greening the System: Exploring the Impact of Ecocritical Modding of The Sims 4 on our Sustainable Imaginaries. Master’s Thesis. Utrecht University. 2022. UU Theses Repository (10347).
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Sources:
Samuel McCready. “Playing the Past and Alternative Futures: Counterfactual History in Fallout 4.” Loading 12, no 20 (2019).
Sean Cubitt. “Ecomedia Futures.” International Journal of Media and Culture Politics 10, no. 2 (June 2014).
Nikola Tesla. My Inventions and Other Writings. New York: Penguin Books, 2011.
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(Published on: 2023-03-14 12:00:00)
