Shaping Atmospheres

Once regarded as a universal æther impregnated with myth and imbued with astrological significance, the sky now bears the burden of heat-trapping gasses and erratic weather. These atmospheric alterations pose a formidable threat to the planet’s ecosystem, endangering the very breath of life for a vast amount of living beings. In these critical times, recent attention has turned to new geotechnologies, including solar geoengineering that artificially reconditions the stratosphere by mitigating solar radiation. However, our climate issues are not simply meteorological problems with technical solutions but are entwined with socio-political and economic challenges requiring us to fundamentally see the world reimagined. In the endeavor to rectify our original Promethean transgression, it becomes essential to consider both the indispensable possibilities as well as the risks of returning fire back to the sun. The Shaping Atmopheres symposium brings together technical, social-political, and philosophical perspectives to speculate on the significance and implications of shaping atmospheres.

The parallel Shaping Atmopheres exhibition traces the arc of humanity’s enduring relationship to the Sun and our planet’s nebulous environment. A series of objects opens the show with a historical progression of empirical methods measuring the forces enacting upon our atmosphere. And as our relationship to the Sun is physical and cyclical, so is the exhibition, revolving around an immersive looping film program. In medias res, the exhibition begins with the soundscape of a solar eclipse, enwrapping the listener in a moment of darkness before the first light of the Sun breaks the cosmic stillness. Harkening back to when these occurrences were powerful celestial events, the proceeding video returns to ancient Iranian Mithraic practices when sun worship was perhaps forged as a response to an ecological disaster over 4000 years ago. Today, spiritual traditions are sublimated into technological forces driving a solar economy. Instead of evil spirits descending from the sky, we are now concerned with solar storms and heat waves. After millennia of terraforming across continents, the divide between natural and artificial evaporates. Terraforming shifts into aeroforming. The 20th century, shaped by total war (gas warfare) and system’s theory (weather modelling), has in turn propelled the 21st century’s drive towards geoengineering the atmosphere. What are the dangers and potentials of such extreme interventions? Have we faced such challenges before?  The cycle closes with a meditative video of a volcano, the mythical Mount Ararat, shrouded in passing clouds. Fade to black. We enter the stillness once again of a solar eclipse.

Artists
Saodat Ismailova, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Pallavi Paul, Forensic Architecture, Richard Mosse, Noémie Goudal, Bill Fontana, Charles Stankievech, Ala Roushan, Jean-Pierre Aubé, Priyageetha Dia, Common Accounts, E.A.T. Experiments in Art & Technology, Haseeb Ahmed, Ivy Lee

Keynotes
Holly Jean Buck, David Keith

Speakers
Kim Stanley Robinson, Oxana Timofeeva, Paul N. Edwards, Dehlia Hannah, Jerry C. Zee, Carson Chan, Teresa Kramarz, Patricia Reed

Curated by Ala Roushan and Charles Stankievech.

Presented as a collaboration between OCAD University and the University of Toronto with support from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).