Open-weather
About
Open-weather is a feminist experiment in imaging and imagining the earth and its weather systems using DIY tools. We weave speculative storytelling with low cost hardware and open-source software to transform our relations to a planet in climate crisis.
Co-led by Soph Dyer and Sasha Engelmann since 2020, open-weather makes artworks, leads inclusive workshops and develops resources on satellite imagery reception and reading. Through these activities, a network has formed around the project, currently numbering more than one hundred DIY Satellite Ground Station operators around the world, from Buenos Aires to Berlin.
In the tradition of intersectional feminism, open-weather investigates the politics of location and interlocking oppressions that shape our capacities to observe, negotiate, and respond to the climate crisis. In doing so, open-weather challenges dominant representations of earth and environment while complicating ideas of the weather beyond the meteorological.
As well as working with schools and small groups, we have been commissioned by The Photographer’s Gallery (UK), Sonic Acts (NL), Nieuwe Instituut (NL), Library Stack (US), Ràdio Web MACBA (ES), Onassis Stegi (GR), Getxophoto (ES), Our Networks (CA) and Sound Camp (UK) among others.
Open-weather catches a satellite in London on the first day of COP26. From left to right: Sasha Engelmann, Sophie Dyer. Image: The Photographers’ Gallery
Funding
We are always fundraising, if you are able and would like to support open-weather’s activities, please get in touch. Our current fundraising focus is labour and materials costs to cover the Year of Weather.
Open-weather is the recipient of funding through the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, in the framework of Sasha Engelmann’s early career Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship ‘Advancing Feminist and Creative Methods for Sensing Air and Atmosphere’ (2022–2024).
In 2024, open-weather is also supported by British Academy Talent Development Award (UK), the Open Science Hardware Foundation (US) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (US).
We have received financial support by way of project-based commissions:
‘When I image the earth, I imagine another’ was supported in eBook form by Library Stack (US) and NN Contemporary Art (UK). An installation of ‘When I image the earth, I imagine another’ was shown at Getxophoto Festival (ES) in June 2022. The original online artwork ‘When I image the earth, I imagine another’ (COP26 nowcast) was commissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery (UK) in partnership with CCIC Tabakalera (ES) in 2021.
The Impossible Weather Station has been supported and hosted by Lothringer 13 Halle (DE) and Getxophoto Festival (ES). Video works by open-weather have been supported by Well Projects (UK) and Collective Gallery (UK). Sound works by open-weather have been supported by Soundcamp (UK) Movement Radio (GR) and Make Me A Signal (CH).
Open-weather DIY Satellite Ground Station workshops have been supported and hosted by: Akademie Schloss Solitude (DE); Wagenhallen Kunstverein (DE); Lothringer 13 Halle (DE); Kunsthochschule, University of Kassel (DE); The Photographers Gallery London (UK); Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art (PL); Opolno Zdroj Community (PL); Onassis Stegi (GR); Sonic Acts (NL); Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths University (UK); Royal College of Art (UK); Claiming*Spaces at Technische Universität Wien (AT); Rhode Island School of Design (US); Digital Cultures Lab at Nieuwe Instituut (NL); Royal Holloway University of London (UK); Peak (UK); Ràdio Web MACBA (ES); Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (NL);
Open-weather has held funded artistic residencies at Akademie Schloss Solitude (DE, 9 months) and Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art (PL, 3 months).
The first version of website was made possible by Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (PL).
People and ground stations
Open-weather
Sophie ‘Soph’ Dyer (they/all) is a designer, artist and researcher living between Vienna and Durham. Their work combines visual, aural and spatial storytelling with investigative and participatory methods. Soph teaches the Critical Cartographies studio at Design Academy Eindhoven and is an External Advisor to Forensic Architecture. They have worked in digital investigations and until 2023 was a member of Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab. At Amnesty, Soph led the organisation’s crowdsourcing initiative to create the first city-wide map of surveillance cameras in New York, which was used to successfully sue the NYPD. Prior to Amnesty, they were a Senior Researcher with the transparency group, Airwars, and worked for more than a decade with different cultural groups. Collaboration and experiments in pedagogy run throughout Soph’s practice. They co-organised and ran the Feminist Open Source Investigations Group (2019–2022); Free Seminar at the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths (2015–2017); and Parallel School Glasgow (2014) among other initiatives.
Sasha Engelmann (she/her) is a London-based geographer exploring interdisciplinary, feminist, and creative approaches to environmental knowledge making. Her current AHRC funded project – Advancing Feminist and Creative Methods for Sensing Air and Atmosphere – explores the value of feminist principles, creative practices and ‘social design’ tools for citizen-led monitoring of air quality and weather patterns in a time of climate crisis. Her book Sensing Art in the Atmosphere: Elemental Lures and Aerosolar Practices (Routledge, 2020) investigates the role of artistic communities in activating political awareness of air and atmosphere, from clean-air breathing rights to campaigns for ‘lighter-than-air’ mobility. She is Senior Lecturer in Geohumanities at Royal Holloway University of London where she teaches at the intersection of geography and the arts and humanities.
Open-weather network
The open-weather network is a group of people, spread around the world, operating DIY satellite ground stations and contributing field notes on weather and climate to the open-weather archive.
Below is a list of people and ground stations who contributed to the nowcast for COP26. Many others have participated in DIY satellite ground station workshops and submitted imagery to the open-weather archive.
- Alison Scott and Aaron McCarthy (Glasgow, UK)
- Anna Pasco Bolta (Munich, DE)
- Ankit Sharma (Mumbai, India)
- Aouefa Amoussouvi (Bucharest, Romania)
- Barfrost (Kirkenes, Norway)
- Bill Liles (Reston, USA)
- Carl Reineman (Jefferson, USA)
- Catherine Fletcher (Norfolk, USA)
- Cedrick Lukunku Tshimbalanga (Kinshasa, DR Congo)
- Chonmapat Torasa (Bangkok, Thailand)
- Dey Kim (Seoul, South Korea)
- Florent Leon Noel (Venice, Italy)
- George Ridgway (Melbury Abbas, U.K.)
- Jasmin Schädler (Stuttgart, Germany)
- Joaquin Ezcurra and Aimee Juhazs (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
- Ketsia Kinsumba Muanakiese (Kinshasa, DR Congo)
- L Paul Verhage (Homedale, USA)
- Natasha Honey (Newcastle, Australia)
- Olivia Berkowicz (Paris, France)
- Pablo Cattaneo (Mar Del Plata, Argentina)
- Sofia Caferri (San Vittoria, Italy)
- Steve Engelmann (Los Angeles, USA)
- Sybille Neumeyer (Berlin, Germany)
- WXVids/Zefie (Albany, USA)
- Yoshi Matsuoka (Atsugi, Japan)
- Zack Wettstein (Seattle, USA)
Current and core collaborators
Beyond open-weather network, collaboration is intrinsic to how open-weather works. Below is an incomplete list of current and longstanding collaborators. Check the “Credits” section on individual pages for more comprehensive attribution.
- Rectangle
Scotland-based duo Rectangle (Lizzie Malcolm and Dan Powers) frequently collaborate with open-weather on designs, ideas and code. Currently, the studio is working closely with open-weather to expand and improve the collective’s digital infrastructure, including a significant update open-weather apt ahead of the ‘Year of Weather‘ launch. Past collaborations include the COP26 Nowcast, When I image the earth I imagine another, and this website. - Bill Liles
US-based radio amateur (NQ6Z), advisor and longtime friend of open-weather. Currently, Bill is collaborating pro bono with open-weather and Rectangle on a major update to open-weather apt. Bill was an early reviewer of the DIY Satellite Ground Station Workshop Resource, collaborated on the initial build of open-weather apt, and co-authored the corresponding guide. - Grayson Earle
Berlin-based artist and educator Grayson is working with open-weather to develop an open source design for a low cost Automated Satellite Ground Station for NOAA APT. Previously, Grayson Earle worked with open-weather and Bill Liles to code open-weather apt and co-author the corresponding guide. - Golrokh Nafisi
Tehran-based visual artist, illustrator and writer Golrokh Nafisi collaborated with open-weather on the story of the Feminist Anti-fascist Weather Front.
Data and permissions
Please practice careful and equitable attribution when using our materials. When referencing open-weather in academic writing, please cite us.
Unless stated, all images on this website and content in the open-weather Public Archive can be shared under the Creative Commons license:
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED)
Read more on the Creative Commons website.
Unless a different credit if provided, all content on this website should attributed to “open-weather”.
We moderate submissions to the open-weather Public Archive. In a distant future, when open-weather ceases activity, we are committed to uploading the archive to the Internet Archive or a comparable archiving project.
We do our best to get informed consent from anyone who is in documentary photographs or videos. We recognise that this consent is ongoing and it can be withdrawn at anytime. If you have submitted materials to the open-weather Public Archive, feature in documentary material or you name or image is being used in a way that you would prefer not (you do not need to tell us why), you can withdraw your consent by writing to us at: openweathercommunity@gmail.com
Take part
Contribute to the open-weather Public Archive
Submit your satellite recording and field notes to our Public Archive, be part of the open-weather project, and help to build a collective record of the earth and its weather systems during an era of climate crisis.
Use our Resources
To learn more about our politics, explore the ‘Feminist open-weather handbook‘.
To find out more about our planetary “nowcasts”, watch our 30 minute talk for Sonic Acts Biennial.
To engage with our academic research, read ‘Open-weather: speculative feminist propositions for planetary images in an era of climate crisis‘.
Set up your own DIY Satellite Ground Station
Jump to how to build your ground station or deep dive into pedagogical tools in our ‘DIY Satellite Ground Station Workshop Resource‘. The resource is designed so that you can run a DIY Satellite Ground Station workshop and teach others.
Past versions of the ‘DIY satellite ground station workshop resource’ have been translated into French and Polish. If you are interested in a French, Polish or other language version, please email us.
Already familiar with satellite image reception? Read more about signal decoding and how open-weather’s decoder works in ‘Learn how the decoder open-weather APT works‘
Take part in the Year of Weather
Public launch in autumn 2024.
Sign up to our ‘low frequency’ newsletter
To receive invitations to participate in collective earth imaging events and occasional updates about open-weather’s other activities, sign-up to our Substack.