10.09.2019
To Speculate with Clouds an exhibition by Nanna Debois Buhl
17.09.2020–03.10.2020, opening and book launch: 17.09.2020 at 18.00, talk at 17.00
17.09.2020–03.10.2020, opening and book launch: 17.09.2020 at 18.00, talk at 17.00
To Speculate with Clouds is an exhibition about the behavior of clouds, about their depiction in art and science, and about examining them in search of meaning and predictions about shifting weather and climate. The exhibition brings together Nanna Debois Buhl’s new installation On Thunder Clouds and her new artist’s book Cloud Behavior.
In the installation On Thunder Clouds, Buhl examines the thundercloud as motif, meteorological phenomenon, and ominous sign. The work combines photographic solarizations, scientific research, and algorithm-based textual speculations. With its timely subject, the installation is both a reflection on thunderclouds and a picture of a state of mind marked by uncertainty and anticipation.
The installation was sparked by Nanna Debois Buhl’s conversations with physicists from the Group for Atmospheric Complexity, Niels Bohr Institute, studying the dynamics of thunderclouds to understand how we might experience an increase of extreme weather in the future.
In the artist’s book Cloud Behavior, Buhl’s cloud photographs connect to historical thinking about clouds, to scientific research on Cloud Behavior, and to mystical and meteorological contemplation of clouds. Interweaving photographs and drawings, essays, and interviews, Cloud Behavior forms a polyphonic narrative of clouds across disciplines and time periods. The book is designed by Alexis Mark and published by Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology and Humboldt Books.
On September 17 at 5-6 pm, Andrea Fjordside Pontoppidan from Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology will moderate a conversation about the book between Silas Boye Nissen, PhD, Group for Atmospheric Complexity, Niels Bohr Institute, Dehlia Hannah, philosopher of science and aesthetics, Postdoctoral Fellow, Aalborg University-Copenhagen and Nanna Debois Buhl. Books will be sold at reduced price. Come and get your signed copy.
In the installation On Thunder Clouds, Buhl examines the thundercloud as motif, meteorological phenomenon, and ominous sign. The work combines photographic solarizations, scientific research, and algorithm-based textual speculations. With its timely subject, the installation is both a reflection on thunderclouds and a picture of a state of mind marked by uncertainty and anticipation.
The installation was sparked by Nanna Debois Buhl’s conversations with physicists from the Group for Atmospheric Complexity, Niels Bohr Institute, studying the dynamics of thunderclouds to understand how we might experience an increase of extreme weather in the future.
In the artist’s book Cloud Behavior, Buhl’s cloud photographs connect to historical thinking about clouds, to scientific research on Cloud Behavior, and to mystical and meteorological contemplation of clouds. Interweaving photographs and drawings, essays, and interviews, Cloud Behavior forms a polyphonic narrative of clouds across disciplines and time periods. The book is designed by Alexis Mark and published by Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology and Humboldt Books.
On September 17 at 5-6 pm, Andrea Fjordside Pontoppidan from Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology will moderate a conversation about the book between Silas Boye Nissen, PhD, Group for Atmospheric Complexity, Niels Bohr Institute, Dehlia Hannah, philosopher of science and aesthetics, Postdoctoral Fellow, Aalborg University-Copenhagen and Nanna Debois Buhl. Books will be sold at reduced price. Come and get your signed copy.
About Cloud Behavior:
What are we looking at when we look at clouds? What do they signify? What can they predict?
Nanna Debois Buhl’s artist’s book Cloud Behavior is a study of clouds—their materiality, their movements, and their historical significance—through photographs and drawings, essays, and interviews.
During summer 2018, Buhl photographed clouds on medium-format film and experimented with the images in the darkroom. The result is a series of cloud photographs ranging from neutral registrations of the clouds to dramatically altered and color-saturated images.
In the book, Buhl’s cloud photographs connect to historical thinking about clouds, to scientific research on Cloud Behavior, and to the mystical and meteorological contemplation of clouds by Swedish playwright, writer, and artist August Strindberg. In A Blue Book (1907–12), Strindberg believes that he sees cloud formations returning in the same shapes to the same place in the Stockholm sky. He ponders what messages the clouds transmit.
Today, climate researchers study Cloud Behavior to understand how global warming affects the movements of clouds and how, conversely, the movements of clouds might affect global warming. Strindberg and climate researchers share an interest in reading signs and omens in the clouds—and do so with the aid of photography and other means of visualization.
This connection is unfolded in various ways in the texts of the book: In a text collage by Ida Marie Hede and Nanna Debois Buhl, three fictive characters photograph clouds and speculate about their movements. In their essays, philosopher Dehlia Hannah and literary scholar Andrea Fjordside Pontoppidan connect Nanna Debois Buhl’s cloud studies with philosophical, scientific and literary contemplations of clouds. And in a conversation between physicist Jan Olaf Härter and Nanna Debois Buhl, they discuss thunderclouds and their possible impact on the future climate.
The texts are accompanied by pencil drawings, computer simulations and mythological depictions of clouds. Cloud Behavior thus forms a polyphonic, intertwined narrative of clouds across disciplines and time periods.
What are we looking at when we look at clouds? What do they signify? What can they predict?
Nanna Debois Buhl’s artist’s book Cloud Behavior is a study of clouds—their materiality, their movements, and their historical significance—through photographs and drawings, essays, and interviews.
During summer 2018, Buhl photographed clouds on medium-format film and experimented with the images in the darkroom. The result is a series of cloud photographs ranging from neutral registrations of the clouds to dramatically altered and color-saturated images.
In the book, Buhl’s cloud photographs connect to historical thinking about clouds, to scientific research on Cloud Behavior, and to the mystical and meteorological contemplation of clouds by Swedish playwright, writer, and artist August Strindberg. In A Blue Book (1907–12), Strindberg believes that he sees cloud formations returning in the same shapes to the same place in the Stockholm sky. He ponders what messages the clouds transmit.
Today, climate researchers study Cloud Behavior to understand how global warming affects the movements of clouds and how, conversely, the movements of clouds might affect global warming. Strindberg and climate researchers share an interest in reading signs and omens in the clouds—and do so with the aid of photography and other means of visualization.
This connection is unfolded in various ways in the texts of the book: In a text collage by Ida Marie Hede and Nanna Debois Buhl, three fictive characters photograph clouds and speculate about their movements. In their essays, philosopher Dehlia Hannah and literary scholar Andrea Fjordside Pontoppidan connect Nanna Debois Buhl’s cloud studies with philosophical, scientific and literary contemplations of clouds. And in a conversation between physicist Jan Olaf Härter and Nanna Debois Buhl, they discuss thunderclouds and their possible impact on the future climate.
The texts are accompanied by pencil drawings, computer simulations and mythological depictions of clouds. Cloud Behavior thus forms a polyphonic, intertwined narrative of clouds across disciplines and time periods.
