Artist James Dooley has been awarded the Large Objects Moving Air Commission for 2018 for his proposed work, Have you talked about the weather today?, a video and sound installation that uses live feeds from the International Space Station to ask questions about the way we engage with the weather.
Have you talked about the weather today? invites the audience to take a virtual trip on the International Space Station—the ultimate indoors experience—and experience a sonic Baudrillardian simulacrum of ground level weather and atmospheric conditions relative to the ISS’s position above the Earth. By tracking the ISS and using the Dark Sky weather API service, data detailing current weather and atmospheric conditions at the ground point perpendicular to the position of ISS are collected via 'The Cloud'. Temperature, humidity, cloud cover and precipitation are sonified using noise-based synthesis techniques, with sound spatialisation controlled by wind speed and direction. Weather statistics and a live video stream looking out of the ISS are projected onto the wall of the installation space to further emphasise the removal of the audience from the direct experience of outdoors.
Have you talked about the weather today? questions our perception and experience of the weather in relation to our 'indoor' lives, the structures and systems we create to sustain our existence and protect us from the elements, the resources they consume and the reciprocal feedback this has on global weather patterns. Through technological mediation we can localise our global experience, but it comes at a global cost.
The work will be shown as part of the Large Objects Moving Air conference at London College Of Communication on 8 January 2018.
James Dooley is a digital artist based in Birmingham, UK. His audiovisual interaction design examines approaches to combining audio, visual and environmental elements to create emergent forms. The individual components of his work play with the boundary between autonomy and synchrony, revealing hidden connections and creating a meta-environment.
Visit www.jrdooley.com and www.formuls.co.uk for more information.
Keynote Speakers and Performances
James’ installation is added to the line-up for the LOMA conference, which includes a presentation on elephant infrasound communication by sound recordiist Chris Watson, a special commission for bass recorder by Laura Cannell, and a keynote presentation from artist, writer and researcher J. R. Carpenter.
More information on the rest of the programme will be coming soon.
Reserve Your Place for LOMA 18
To reserve your place at Large Objects Moving Air 2018, please visit our webpage.
About Large Objects Moving Air 2018
Large Objects Moving Air 2018 is a one day conference exploring the presence, agency and materiality of air from the microscale to macroscale, through both literal and figurative interpretations. What comes to mind when one thinks about air? Air is everywhere and nowhere. It is a carrier of frequencies, energies, vibrations, toxins, pollutants and blast waves. It supports life and is a site of communication. It is clouds and The Cloud. Who owns it? Can it be owned? Who or what are the agents in the transmission and circulation of air? How does it circulate and what circulates within it? Read more.
Image credit: Harvey from ISS Jack Fischer