Towards
Atmospheric
Care
Hanna Husberg and Agata MarzecovaAtmospheric
Care
Towards Atmospheric Care is an art-led research project by visual artist Hanna Husberg and researcher in ecology, photography and new media Agata Marzecova that explores air as a naturalcultural and technoecological phenomenon situated in the nexus of media, science and technological mediation. By extending the notion of care to air and the atmosphere, we ask: How can we care for what is inaccessible to direct experience, but still structures our daily lives?
The project is developed through three situated case studies. As the Air Became This Number analyses the emergence of novel datafied aerial imaginaries in Beijing and the ways in which these influence everyday practices as well as modes of governance. From Aurora to Geospace looks at large-scale techno-scientific infrastructures for sensing atmospheric phenomena in the Fennoscandian Arctic (KAIRA, EISCAT and the next generation radar network EISCAT 3D) in order to inquire into their role in constructing new imaginaries that allow for apprehending and sensing the environment in new ways. And The New Electronic Ecosystem, a new case which will reflect upon a near future in which the emergent 5G technoecology, using trillions of antennas emitting beams of radiation, will connect not just people, but the whole world contributing to a novel augmented electromagnetic environment.
The project is developed through three situated case studies. As the Air Became This Number analyses the emergence of novel datafied aerial imaginaries in Beijing and the ways in which these influence everyday practices as well as modes of governance. From Aurora to Geospace looks at large-scale techno-scientific infrastructures for sensing atmospheric phenomena in the Fennoscandian Arctic (KAIRA, EISCAT and the next generation radar network EISCAT 3D) in order to inquire into their role in constructing new imaginaries that allow for apprehending and sensing the environment in new ways. And The New Electronic Ecosystem, a new case which will reflect upon a near future in which the emergent 5G technoecology, using trillions of antennas emitting beams of radiation, will connect not just people, but the whole world contributing to a novel augmented electromagnetic environment.
The question of caring — and, in particular, caring for phenomena such as air and the atmosphere, which are imperceptible to our senses — will be used throughout the project as a central methodological approach. Similar to air, care escapes easy categorisation, and requires situated knowing on the ground. In view of this, care is approached as a proposition to think with, and as a transformative ethos, rather than an added moral/ethical value.
To formulate and to experiment with care as the methodological approach, gender scholar Liu Xin and curator Taru Elfving will support the project and contribute with their insight and feedback.
In 2020-22, the project is supported by the Kone Foundation.
You can reach us here:
towards.atmospheric.care [at] gmail [dot] com
To formulate and to experiment with care as the methodological approach, gender scholar Liu Xin and curator Taru Elfving will support the project and contribute with their insight and feedback.
In 2020-22, the project is supported by the Kone Foundation.
You can reach us here:
towards.atmospheric.care [at] gmail [dot] com
