- Date of Incident
- 2008 - Ongoing
- Location
- Worldwide
- Publication Date
- 29 May 2020
- Commissioned By
- ZKM, Center for Art and Media
- Additional Funding
- ZKM, Center for Art and Media, The Whitworth, Manchester International Festival
- Collaborators
- None
- Methodologies
- 3D Modelling, Fieldwork, Geolocation, Fluid Dynamics, Image Complex, Machine Learning, OSI, Remote Sensing, Synchronisation, Software Development
- Forums
- Exhibition, Web Platform
- Exhibitions
- Critical Zones: Observations for earthly politics, Cloud Studies at UTS Gallery, Antibodies, Cloud Studies at the Whitworth, Cyberarts: Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition (Golden Nica Award), Cloud Studies at Visual Carlow, New Elements, Cloud Studies at The 12th Berlin Biennale, Homosphäre, Breathing, Cloud Studies at Open House Melbourne, Cloud Studies at Tensta Konsthall, In the Air, Critical Zones: In search of a common ground, Pedagogies of the Common/s, Atmósferas de Terror, Shaping Atmospheres, All That We Have in Common
Cloud Studies was originally produced for the exhibition Critical Zones: Observatories for earthly politics at ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe. Alongside the physical exhibition, our work was also presented on the virtual exhibition platform. It was then exhibited in solo shows at UTS Sydney (2020), and a new, updated edition of the essay film was shown for the first time at the Whitworth Gallery (2021, premiering as part of Manchester International Festival, co-produced by the University of Manchester). The project won the Prix Ars Electronica 2021 Golden Nica Award in the Artificial Intelligence & Life Art category and was exhibited in Linz, Austria in 2021 as part of the Cyberarts awards exhibition at OK Offenes Kulturhaus. It has also since been exhibited in major shows including as part of the Berlin Biennale (2022), and at Visual Carlow (2021-22), the Wellcome Collection (2022), Hamburger Kunsthalle (2022), Open House Melbourne (2022). In September 2022, a further updated edition of the work was premiered at Tensta Konsthall.
Cloud Studies is an iterative film that is updated periodically to incorporate new work on airborne violence. The latest version was published in 2022.
Mobilised by state and corporate powers, toxic clouds colonise the air we breathe across different scales and durations. Repressive regimes use tear gas to clear democratic protests from urban roundabouts. Carcinogenic plumes of petrochemical emissions smother racialised communities. Airborne chemicals such as chlorine, white phosphorous, and herbicides, are weaponised to displace and terrorise. Forest arson in the tropics creates continental-scale meteorological conditions, forcing millions to breathe toxic air.
It is a basic principle of forensics that, between solid objects, “every contact leaves a trace”. By contrast, clouds are the epitome of transformation, their dynamics are governed by nonlinear, multi-causal logics. This condition was apparent throughout the history of painting, when clouds, moving faster than the painter’s brush could capture them, needed to be imagined rather than described.
Clouds are always double. Seen from the outside they are measurable objects, seen from within they are experiential conditions of optical blur and atmospheric obscurity. Today’s clouds are both environmental and political. Their toxic fog is easily surrounded by lethal doubt. When ‘post-truth’ and denialism obscure acts of violence and compound the harm, we, the inhabitants of toxic clouds, must find new ways of resistance.
Below are the films included in the Cloud Studies investigation archive, grouped by compound.
White Phosphorus
Glyphosate
Carbon Monoxide
Fine Particulate Matter
Methane
Tear Gas
Water
Chlorine
Cement
