SNOWHERE
Exploring the Media Communication of Snow amidst the Climate Emergency
Climate Narratives | Forecasting | Meteorology | Spatial Design | Graphic Communication
Snowhere is a travelling film installation that proposes speculative, often highly paradoxical scenarios related to cold weather and the warming planet, through a series of generated audio newscasts, weather reports and future forecasts from locations across the globe.
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Each forecast is a digital snow globe. A city in North America where blizzards increase in intensity. A small town in the Himalayas, where snow is manufactured for tourism by directing water away from agriculture. In Northern England, a temporary deep freeze is set off by aerosol dispersion and an anomalous jet stream.
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These fictional weather reports engage audiences to interrogate the political manipulation and media communication of cold weather amidst rising temperatures, by highlighting meteorological complexities affecting snow.
HOW CAN MANIPULATED NARRATIVES OF SNOW BE QUESTIONED IN THE CONTEXT OF OUR CURRENT CLIMATE EMERGENCY?
Research Study
The Illustrated Blizzard Newspaper
Compiling opinions, meteorological data, timelines, archive and current news articles, satirical advertisements and information from 10+ scientific journal articles were paraphrased and juxtaposed into news articles.​​
Making information digestible and presenting the various point of views illustrated the complexity, contradiction and paradoxical nature of snow on a warming planet. Investigating from the lens of politics, media communication, science and history.
The Fate(s) of Snow
Charting collected information onto a matrix detailing various physical forms and intensities of snow, human led meteorological manipulation, scientific projections, certain meteorological phenomena
The Planetary and The Hyperlocal
Charting cold weather patterns controlled by the Arctic Circle and where it travels.
The Forecast Factory and three conceptual explorations
From experimenting with Dall:E for conceptual imagery to creating digital collages, sketches and illustrations, the conceptual journey for the experience started with... snow globes.
The English mathematician and physicist, Lewis Richardson Fry's vision of the 'Forecast Factory', on which modern weather forecasting is based was also an early inspiration for this project.
The final project became an iteration of the third conceptual exploration.
1
Is an interactive installation simulating a weather station, in which audience investigate the frequent freak blizzards by tracking the travelling arctic wind through several regions and timelines. As the experience unfolds, several false leads and incomplete truths lead the investigators to critically engage with the notion that the planetary warming may be the real culprit masked by the icy wind. They compile notes and data, coming to their own conclusions.
2
Is a speculative fiction about a future where warmer winters mean snow is scarce and has become a coveted tourist commodity. Only a few specific cities across the globe get extreme snow, thus becoming tourist hotspots. This fiction unfolds in form of a satirical ‘advertisement’ of one of these cities, with an interactive panorama, urging travellers to visit.
3
Is a fiction told in form of weather reports from year 2080 via an immersive installation. The snowy climate havens people migrated to in the first half of 21st century, have become deadly blizzard centres. Travellers and tourists on their quest to see real snow perished. Meteorological conditions, repercussions of planetary warming and tales of the societal ramifications serve to the flip the current narrative of snowy utopias on a fast warming globe.
The Snow Globes, the Forecasts and the Weather Reports
The Snow Globe represents the various material states of snow, providing space to imagine the various fates of snow. The tone-of-voice used in news reports demands attention, often urgency.
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SNOWHERE: Project Trailer
The audio-visual weather reports become a digital snowglobe, within which we can explore the fates of snow, and understand the urgency with which we need ready action to mitigate the worst effects instead of responsive action or manipulative tactics using snow to slow down the pace of our reparations.​