Janine Randerson (Independent Curator) and Deborah Lawler Dormer (Director, MIC)
atmos: weather as media is an exhibition of air, sun, clouds and storms.
In Ancient Greece the word atmos meant breath or vapour: it applied equally to both the human and the planetary realms. Today, atmos sometimes refers to the vaporous mist dissolving the visible background of a scene in cinema special effects, or to the background ambient noise that fills out a dialogue track in sound engineering. But periodically the atmosphere moves to the foreground “ in the form of cataclysmic storms or droughts. And, within the persistent hum of atmos, we are now also hearing the increasingly urgent demands of a shifting climate.
All of the artists in this exhibition incorporate aspects of the weather directly into their practices, by drawing attention to the agency of unpredictable natural phenomena. Some use weather as physical material, some simulate atmospheres, while others approach weather allegorically. At a time of ecological stress, such mediations in weather become ciphers for dialogue, critique and transformation.
the artists
atmos: weather as media presents a selection of international and New Zealand artists whose practices span science, technology and ecology, in works ranging from digital media to photography, drawing and sound art.
Andrea Polli (USA) engages with scientific processes of atmospheric observation, used during her recent residency in Antarctica, for her ˜90 degrees South project. Media artists Corby and Baily (UK) draw parallels between the isobar lines of cyclones and the algorithms generated by political atmosphere in news feeds. The weather reports collected from Le Monde by Jerome Knebusch (Fr-Ger) address weather as an everyday part of life, while the storm-chasers who pursue extreme weather and upload to YouTube represent weather as an event. Janine Randerson (NZ) combines public documentation of weather enthusiasts with satellite visualisations of storms collected by meteorologists. Lisa Benson (NZ) captures shifting ambient light directly on photographic paper in order to materialise both time and light, while Cameron Robbins (Aus) uses the phase space of the wind to generate pen drawings. Hoon Li (NZ-Kr) subtly alters cloud forms in digital photography, and Douglas Bagnall (NZ) creates robot software for choosing favourite clouds.
The vapour produced by the respiration of the planet generates clouds, storms and also creative approaches. By using weather as a medium for art production these artists suggest that the contingent nature of atmospheric conditions can in fact create conditions of possibility. Their many weathers may signal disorder “ but it is a productive disorder.
Curated by Janine Randerson