Experiencing Climate as Place and Atmosphere

The concepts of atmosphere and place denote both concrete material-geographical domains and dimensions of experience modulated by architecture, technology, politics, history and social practice. One has a 'sense of place;' a room has ambience, a community is charged with a revolutionary atmosphere. In the context of contemporary concerns about climate change and environmental damage, the atmosphere itself is also a social, aesthetic and political space. This transdisciplinary research project grounds philosophical, historical and scientific inquiry in experimental artistic and technological practice to explore how we may enact, transform and moderate our sense of atmosphere and place in contexts ranging from the idealized environments we build in the laboratory/studio to the unruly real world where our creative instruments must be fashioned from policy and emerging technology. Our first project, Experiential Climate Models, draws upon responsive media technologies and methods of scientific simulation to explore how our experiences of atmospheric phenomena are mediated by models.