Transmittance

The Mill July 2023

Make| Shift, Illuminate Festival

Weatherlore is storytelling that seeks meaning in the natural world to forecast changes in the weather from day to day but also to track the timing of seasons in transition. Societies learn over generations to be alert to warnings for impending natural disasters.  Signs in the atmospheres as directives to alter farming or fishing practices, shift harvest schedules or to seek shelter are practical instructions felt deep in our bones.

Lately I have reflected on moments when skies go dark, glow red or double rainbows collide with busters of storm clouds. In our time a multitude of readings clash, in meaning making, we have redefined what is natural – rain coming, bushfire approaching, pollution descending, machines in action, a biotech innovation... But, what if these moments were lost or no longer present to activate the senses? What if these signs were reduced to sensorial moments of lost human experience?

In a future moment of post-climate change, would our bodies ache for scene changes directed by the weather. If we nolonger understood climate through direct physical contact, if our experience was a controlled system of artificial and synthetic realities? If we lived in weatherproofed homes? In future times, will we feel an urgency to experience weather transitions for the sake of our physical well-being?

In a recent exhibition for The Illuminate Festival at The Mill in Adelaide, I created a daylight simulator that emulated time through projection. Weather as shadow for personal reflection on winter-time ambiance in enclosed spaces. I speculated about a future world, where underground/ weatherproof living is normal, I identified the psychological importance of dappled light as light fairies on walls to connect us with seasonal shifts to enhance quality of life.  

I am proposing that the reason we attune to weather signs may evolve once more. From seeking communion with the Gods, to applying scientific attunement with the earth, to adjusting to a climate infused with modern diversions to perhaps craving for the affect of sensory shifts informed by weather, not as information to alert actions but rather as embodied experiences felt in stillness, as moments to connect bodies through time.