'WEATHER GLASS OR CRYSTAL BALL?' is an interdisciplinary research project organised by the Goethe-Institut in Glasgow, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. Through hackathons, artistic research and a concluding symposium, we’ll be exploring the questions of how we experience and communicate about weather and climate change.
The crystal ball and the weather glass, or barometer, were both invented because of human curiosity and because of our urgent need to understand and predict the conditions of the world around us. Both objects are associated with the expectation of being able to make predictions, and both tell a story about the connection of art and science.
Scientists and artists capturing the weather – this forms one element of the project. Pictures from previous centuries can be used to derive information about the weather conditions at the time of their creation, and traces of human influence on the earth’s ecosystem are also visible in the pictures. However, this project is just as much about contemporary debates about the weather. The point is to re-understand and to re-enforce that there is no life without weather and no living without climate.
participating places
Glasgow, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Review
"Fungal Datascapes: A Sporous Commons of Mushrooms and Climate" is an immersive art installation and 360° video experience created and realised by artists Rut Karin Zettergren (Sweden), Finn Arschavir (Scotland) and Jens Evaldsson (Sweden). The work is part of the Goethe-Institut project "Weather Glass or Crystal Ball? Mapping the Weather in Arts and Science".
The project "Weather Glass or Crystal Ball? Mapping the Weather in Arts and Science" explores the multiple correlations between weather, humans and climate change. The participants of the "Conversations about Climate" address the question of how we relate to the world in light of the climate crisis and what narratives enable us to find the strength to undertake the necessities. Moderated by Svante Helmbaek Tirén, the three conversations revolve around the climate as an emotional, as a holistic and as an artistic narrative. The event will conclude with the artistic performance "Can we talk about the weather?" by Alison Scott.
"Climate as an emotional narrative":
Conversations about climate are often very emotional, not least because we quickly reach the point of what individual countries or individuals should or should not do. News of weather disasters such as droughts and floods also trigger strong emotions, but fear makes us weak. How can we face the frightening reality of climate change and at the same time find the strength for a new beginning?
Panellists:
Anke Fischer, University of Agriculture, Uppsala
Kata Nylén, psychologist, author and co-founder of Klimatpsykologerna
"Climate as a Holistic Narrative":
We live in a world whose rhythm is hardly determined by nature, but by the demands of the global economic and consumer society. Most of our environment is now man-made or at least significantly influenced by humans and designed for the optimal use of nature as a resource. Could a holistic understanding of nature and the world help us find a way out of the climate crisis?
Panellists:
Friedrich von Borries, University of Fine Arts Hamburg
Isabel Löfgren, Södertörn University of Applied Sciences
Janna Holmstedt, National historical museums
Moa Sandström, Umeå University
"Climate as an artistic narrative":
Art gives us the opportunity to see the world through different eyes, to discover new spaces of experience and expression that would otherwise have remained hidden from us in everyday life. Art is polyphonic, its strength lies in its openness. How can it contribute to people reconsidering their attitude towards the world? How can it reach out to individuals and inspire them to get involved in a common cause?
Panellists:
Leonie Licht, University of Applied Arts, Vienna
Daniel Urey, think tank LABLAB
Andres Veiel, film director
Jens Evaldsson, Rut Karin Zettergren, Finn Arschavir ( Artists of the regional project)
MICROPERFORMATIVITY AND BIOMEDIALITY:
FROM THE STORM IN THE GLASS TO THE BLUE DATA SKY
Within the project Weather Glass or Crystal Ball? Mapping the Weather in Arts and Science, the Goethe-Institut encourages interdisciplinary research on how weather and climate change are experienced and discussed. On 16.09.21, the Goethe-Institut Norway organised a digital conversation with the author and curator Jens Hauser and the artist and researcher Laura Beloff to discuss questions of microperformativity. Theoretical concepts as well as practical artistic methods were discussed, which make the outlined ideas tangible.
Jens Hauser
Jens Hauser (PhD), is a media researcher, writer and curator based in Paris and Copenhagen who focuses on the relationship between art and technology at the intersection of art history and epistemology. His recent curated exhibitions, performances and media art festivals include WETWARE (LA, 2016), Devenir Immobile (Nantes, 2018), {un][split} (Munich, 2018), MATTER/S matter/s (Lansing, 2018), UN/GREEN (Riga, 2019), OU \/ ERT (Bourges, 2019) and Holobiont. Life is Other (Bregenz, 2021).
Goethe-Institut
Laura Beloff (PhD), is an internationally recognised artist and researcher working at the intersection of art, science and technology. In addition to research papers and literary contributions, the results of her artistic research are on show in the form of experimental art projects that explore the encounter between technological and biological matter. Beloff is currently an associate professor and head of the ViCCA programme at Aalto University, Finland.
This hackathon was a multi-disciplinary research lab designed to explore how we do or don't relate to the weather. Do we really understand that the extreme weather conditions we experience are a consequence of climate change? If so, how do we articulate this correlation? Can this be done by connecting weather and climate data to art? A two-day online event aimed to explore these possibilities through a close dialogue between art and science.
