Yesterday evening there was a long collective performance on the Hauptplatz (Main Square) of Linz. Moon Ride, developed by Austrian artists Assocreation, invited cyclists to participate to a Moon Ride.

People hooked up their bicycles on one of the dozens of generators to provide the muscle power necessary to charge a giant battery. Each revolution of every set of pedals moved the battery charge indicator a little closer to full. In the evening, the stored energy was used to light up a giant balloon floating above the city. At a determined time in the night, the cyclists output was switched directly to the balloon: the harder they pedaled, the brighter the artificial moon.

Images on flickr.

Although their installation was quite poetic, the artists were not the first to get that idea: pedal-powered electricity, water-pumping merry-go-round, Energy supply from gym workout, Bikes turned into game controllers.