Climate Cosmograms. artistic methods for reimagining climate imaginaries otherwise

Abstract

For this panel, I propose discussing a set of artistic methods I have developed to engage in transdisciplinary work with scientists to reimagine climate computation otherwise. My research focuses on the techno-political and cosmological dimensions of climate knowledge through the figure of the cosmogram - a description of how the world works - as both a lens for studying climate modelling infrastructures and a practice for rehearsing other modalities of Earth’s computation. As an artist inquiring into climate science, I will introduce the artistic methods I have developed in my ongoing research to overcome the shortfall of art-science collaborations, in which artists are often expected to act as mediators or sublimators of the work of science for the public. Instead, I seek to critically inquire into the field of climate science to engage with the modalities, practices, and tools through which Earth is modelled, and climate is predicted through artistic practice. These methods include computational debugging of climate models together with climate scientists, the development of analogue and digital games to collectively rethink the infrastructure producing and interpreting climate knowledge, and finally, the development of artistic works that I call climate engines, the translation of climate models into game environments that can be traversed, reconfigured, and experienced. For this panel, I will discuss how I have established a transdisciplinary framework through artistic methods to practice with scientists, giving concrete empirical examples.