Supersaturation
Interactive cloud experience, 2020-
Clouds are wondrous and mysterious – merging different elements, metaphors and information, and questioning the experience of the invisible. A formless form, a shifting event space, open to many projections and possibilities, yet real, active and current. Sometimes the cloud touches the surface of the Earth, sometimes it reaches into the future – and for a fleeting moment the cloud is before us.
The critical, yet invisible, intersections between atmosphere, ecosystem and society create an immersive installation when atmospheric motion transforms into a continuous digital cloud formation. Through interactive climate data and real-time video and sound, the project explores the contingency of the cloud in the changing environment.
Multiple data streams intersect in Supersaturation. What you see and hear is the result of ‘cloud-to-cloud’ communication between the vast amount of scientific data measured from the atmosphere and extensive variations of digital video and sounds, captured and interpreted from the clouds. These different modes of invisible information, one influencing the other, are combined to provide a sensuous experience for the viewer.
The data technology determines and reconfigures the shifting appearance of work according to the changes in the sky. The complex and unpredictable system is powered by enormous amount of climate data*, cloud video footage and atmospheric orchestra. Every stream of data is defined separately to modify the audio-visual information moment-by-moment. As a consequence every instant of the Supersaturation is unique.
Supersaturation takes the viewer closer to the complexity of atmospheric phenomena and the hidden processes related to climate sensitivity. Clouds are the visible phenomena of those invisible interactions in the sky and important part of life on Earth. When the clouds are brought into the exhibition space, they move from the factual into the sensorial realm and the cloud emerges as a possibility for imagined futures.
* Clouds are held by currents of air yet without atmospheric aerosols, there would be no clouds. These tiny invisible particles initiate cloud formation and influence cloud properties. The data processed in Supersaturation investigates the relationship between atmospheric aerosols and clouds and their wide-ranging effects on Earth’s climate system due to the increasing anthropogenic emissions. Clouds and aerosols continue to contribute the largest uncertainty to the impacts of climate change (IPCC 2022).
Scientific data in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES) - Stockholm University, Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) - University of Helsinki and Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU).
Sound in collaboration with Tapio Viitasaari.
The installation is commissioned by The City of Jönköping and curated by Filip Zezovski Lind.
Supersaturation has been exhibited at Jönköping City Library, Sweden, Titanik Gallery, Sinkka Art Museum, Finland and Helsinki International Film Festival x For Safer Climate (2020-2022).