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, open-weather creates artworks, leads inclusive workshops and develops resources on the reception of images from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. Through these activities, a fragile network has formed around the project, now including over 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.
Open-weather catches a satellite in London on the first day of COP26. Image: The Photographers’ Gallery
Funding
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).
This website has been supported by Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw.
We have also received funding by way of commissions for projects:
‘When I image the earth, I imagine another’ was supported in eBook form by Library Stack and NN Contemporary Art. An installation of ‘When I image the earth, I imagine another’ was presented at Getxophoto Festival, Spain in June 2022. The original online artwork ‘When I image the earth, I imagine another’ (COP26 nowcast) was commissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery (London, UK) in partnership with CCIC Tabakalera (Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain) 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); Royal Holloway University of London (UK)
Open-weather has held funded artistic residencies at Akademie Schloss Solitude (DE, 9 months) and Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art (PL, 3 months).
People and ground stations
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 (Lizzie Malcolm and Dan Powers)
Rectangle collaborate with open-weather on designs, ideas and code. Currently, the studio is working with open-weather to expand and improve the collective’s digital infrastructure and to prototype an automatic satellite ground station for the upcoming ‘Year of Weather’. Past collaborations include the COP26 Nowcast, When I image the earth I imagine another, and this website. - Bill Liles
Bill Liles is a US-based radio amateur under the callsign NQ6Z, advisor and longtime friend of open-weather. Bill reviewed early drafts of the DIY Satellite Ground Station workshop resource, collaborated on the build of open-weather apt and co-authored the corresponding guide. - Grayson Earle
Berlin-based artist, educator and good friend Grayson Earle worked with open-weather and Bill to code open-weather apt and co-authored the corresponding guide. - Golrokh Nafisi
Brilliant 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
All content created and hosted by open-weather adheres to the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Please practice careful attribution if using our images, text or content.
Unless stated photographs, videos and audio used on this website should attributed to “open-weather”.
We moderate all submissions to the open-weather archive.
In the distant future, when open-weather ceases activity, we will do our best to upload all content 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 is being used in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, for whatever reason (you do not need to tell us why), you would like to withdraw your consent – please let us know. You can write to us at: openweathercommunity@gmail.com
Take part
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‘
Contribute to the open-weather archive
Become part of the open-weather network by submitting your satellite imagery, documentation and field notes to our Public archive.
Take part in the ‘Year of Weather’
Coming in autumn 2023.
Sign up to our email list
To receive invitations to participate in collective earth imaging events and occasional updates about open-weather, let us know by email that you would like to be added to our email list. To unsubscribe at any time, email us.