Political Atmosphere is an experiential installation amplifying the invisible connections between flight turbulence, climate change and war. It consists of a data-driven mechanical siren and an ADS-B antenna, which allows for receiving, processing and visualizing the surrounding flight traffic. Each flight slowly accelerates the latent build-up of potential until a threshold is passed and a mechanism releases the siren.
Political Atmosphere
Political Atmosphere is the result of a several-months-long research process of tracing the invisible connections between flight turbulence, climate change and war. About a century ago, Lewis Fry Richardson—a British meteorologist and peace researcher—theorized that the same methods he used to forecast atmospheric turbulence could be applied to predict political turbulences like conflicts and war. By considering contemporary climate science, this installation further explores his hypothesis in the context of the Anthropocene.
The complexity of these relations is made tangible by means of a data-driven mechanical siren and an ADS-B antenna, which allows for receiving, processing and visualizing the surrounding flight traffic. Each flight slowly accelerates the latent build-up of potential until a threshold is passed and a mechanism releases the siren.
The roar of the siren, both literally and metaphorically, has become a part of reality in conflict-torn areas. At last, it is starting to echo back on western society.
Credit: Felix Lenz
Project Credits / Acknowledgements
Produced at and with generous support from: Design Investigations (ID2), University of Applied Arts Vienna; machining support: Christijan Narat, Alpex Technologies GmbH; coding: Leo Mühlfeld
Special thanks to:
Ben Schneider, Ali Bakarov, Stephanie Kneissl, Sarah Franzl, Ula Reutina, Max Scheidl, Julia Habarda, Kerem Atalay, Ganael Dumreicher, Lorenz Zweier, Xavier Madden, Ina Mangold
Biography
Felix Lenz is a multidisciplinary artist and designer working at the intersection of technology, politics and environment. His work has been shown at several Biennials, is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Applied Arts Vienna and has been profiled in the New York Times. He is currently studying at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. His work can be found at https://felixlenz.at.
