From Aurora to Geospace is developed as part of Towards Atmospheric Care, a long-term art-led research project by Stockholm based visual artist Hanna Husberg and Tallinn based researcher in ecology, photography and new media Agata Marzecova.
Over the last three centuries, Fennoscandian territories have emerged as one of the most important ‘natural laboratories’ for conducting scientific research on the functioning of the atmosphere as well as the whole geosphere, and therefore also as a place where global atmospheric imaginaries are shaped. Through a focus on near-Earth space and the ionospheric radar infrastructures located in northern Sweden, Norway and Finland, From Aurora to Geospace explores how historical interest in visible atmospheric phenomena, such as the aurora borealis, has contributed to the uncovering of invisible processes and phenomena that are made perceptible only with the help of geoscience. Rather than observing atmospheric phenomena as such, the project explores the instruments, historical circumstances, events and ideas that make them visible, and that contribute to the construction of novel atmospheric imaginaries and sensibilities.
The month-long NFK residency will be used to process audiovisual and research material collected between 2018-2019 and for producing the research exhibition From Aurora to Geospace to be exhibited at Östra Galleriet, Konstakademien 14.3 - 26.4.2020.
Agata Marzecova is a researcher in ecology, photography & new media. Having a dual scientific and artistic background, Agata has participated in a range of projects at the intersection of science, technology, art and theory. Her recent installation project ‘Vernacular geology’ was shown in the Baltic Pavilion (15th International Architecture Venice Biennale, 2016) and The Baltic Material Assemblies (Architectural Association & RIBA London, 2018). Hanna Husberg is a visual artist, graduated from ENSBA, Paris, and currently the holder of the Bernadotte Scholarship at the Royal Art Academy in Stockholm. Through a practice of video and installation projects, Hanna investigates how humans imagine, perceive, and relate to the environment in times of anthropogenic climate change. In their long-term collaboration, the duo seeks to examine the overlapping boundaries between the aesthetic, science and politics of air and the atmosphere. As an integral part of this inquiry, air and the atmosphere are envisaged as technoecological phenomena that require critical engagement with perception, representation and materiality. Their interdisciplinary art-led and research-based practice seeks to develop a multiplicity of outcomes that allow sharing the problematics of air across different platforms, context and audiences. Their collaboration has been developed through residencies at SeedBox Environmental Humanities Collaboratory (Linköping University, 2017), Ars Bioarctica Residency (Finnish Bioart Society, Kilpisjärvi, 2018), Mustarinda AIR residency (2019) and KONE Saari Residency (2020), a series of lecture-performances, conference presentations, essays and teaching.