Nathalie Miebach: Art made of storms

Summary

The speaker combines weather data, sculpture, and music to create multi-sensory experiences that visualize and sonify natural phenomena. Using low-tech tools and data from weather stations, they translate numbers into woven sculptures and musical scores. By assigning weather elements like temperature, wind, and pressure to visual or auditory representations, the artist makes invisible systems tactile, visible, and audible. Their work challenges the boundaries between art, science, and music, offering new ways for people to engage with complex scientific concepts, regardless of their background or expertise.

Takeaways

• 🎵 The music you heard was based on the weather data from Hurricane Noel in 2007, turned into musical notes.
• 🌡️ The artist uses a 3D graph of weather data, where each bead and colored band represents a weather element that is also interpreted as a musical note.
• 🌍 The artist finds weather systems fascinating and uses sculpture and music to make these invisible systems visible, tactile, and audible.
• 📊 The process starts with collecting data using simple, low-tech devices and then comparing it with satellite images, weather data, and historical information.
• 📝 The artist compiles numbers on clipboards, starting with a few key variables, which are then translated into forms using baskets as a structural medium.
• 🧺 The baskets are woven from natural reed, with the numbers controlling the form, revealing patterns and relationships in the weather data.
• 🔢 Each form is entirely constructed from weather data, with the vertical elements representing hours of the day and a temperature range, while other elements represent tides, temperatures, and moon phases.
• 🎶 The artist also transforms weather data into musical scores, where every color, dot, and line corresponds to a weather element.
• 🎻 Musicians perform these weather-based scores, and the artist uses them as blueprints to create sculptural forms that blend music, art, and science.
• 🎨 The artist's work blurs the boundaries between art, science, and music, challenging viewers to rethink the visual languages used in these fields and offering new ways to engage with complex scientific concepts.

Q & A

What is the main concept behind the artist's work with weather data?

The artist uses weather data to create sculptures and musical scores, translating invisible weather elements into visible, tactile, and audible forms. The data drives the artistic creations, revealing patterns and relationships in weather systems.

How does the artist collect the weather data used in their projects?

The artist collects weather data using low-tech devices from hardware stores, compares it with data from online sources like satellite images, weather stations, and offshore buoys, and compiles these numbers for analysis.

What materials does the artist use to translate weather data into sculpture?

The artist uses natural reed and beads to weave sculptures. The vertical and horizontal elements of the reed represent different weather variables, and the tension in the reed ensures that the data, not the artist, shapes the final form.

How does the artist incorporate time into their sculptures?

The vertical elements in the sculptures represent specific hours of the day, creating a 24-hour timeline. On this grid, the artist weaves data like high tide readings, air and water temperature, and moon phases.

How does the artist translate weather data into musical compositions?

The artist creates musical scores by assigning weather variables to musical notation. Each color, dot, and line in the score corresponds to a specific weather element, allowing musicians to perform pieces based on weather data.

How do the sculptures function in multiple contexts, such as art, science, and music?

The sculptures are versatile and can be interpreted differently depending on their placement. In an art museum, they function as sculptures; in a science museum, they are weather visualizations; and in a music hall, they are musical scores.

What is the significance of using natural reed in the sculptures?

The use of natural reed introduces an element of tension that the artist cannot fully control, meaning that the weather data, rather than the artist's intentions, dictates the final form of the sculpture.

Why does the artist find weather data fascinating?

The artist finds weather fascinating because it is a complex, invisible system that affects our environment. By translating this data into tangible forms, the artist makes the complexity of weather accessible and understandable to the public.

How do the artist’s works challenge the boundaries between art, science, and music?

The works challenge boundaries by blending the visual vocabulary of art, science, and music. Depending on the context, a single piece can be interpreted as a sculpture, a scientific data visualization, or a musical score, blurring the lines between disciplines.

What is the purpose of the artist’s work in translating complex scientific data?

The purpose is to provide an alternative entry point into understanding complex scientific data. By transforming weather data into artistic forms, the artist makes science more accessible to people without specialized knowledge.