Model fatigue: debugging Hector through climate computational aesthetics

Abstract

In this paper, we document three computational features of the climate model Hector by translating the modalities through which the model predicts climate futures in a game engine. We build upon the computational aesthetics of M. Beatrice Fazi and Matthew Fuller (2016) and suggest additional characteristics of computation to their proposed list. We argue that these computational aesthetics are essential to climate modelling. The three features are time series, couplings and cosmograms, which are based on our practical and theoretical inquiry into Hector’s computation and literacy. We develop a framework that employs two processual methods: translating the model’s operations into a game engine and the conceptual as well as transdisciplinary debugging of this transfer across different computational interfaces. Through this framework, we ask: what does the process of translating while debugging Hector reveal about the computational aesthetic of the model, and how can this help inquire into its onto-epistemological imaginary? By thinking and practising through specific features of computational aesthetics, we propose a reimagining of climate computation. We introduce the model, the concept of computational aesthetics, and our research methods to describe the three features of climate computation and their influence on Hector’s onto-epistemological imaginary. Finally, we discuss game engines as a site for critical experimentation with the model and the potential reconfiguration and reimagining of computational aesthetics through what we call “climate engines”.