Lindsay Bremner (British, b.1954), John Cook (British, b.1989), Beth Cullen (British, b.1982) and Christina Leigh Geros (American, b.1982) of Monsoon Assemblages (UK, est.2016-2021) and Neal White (British, b.1966), Erik Kearney (Irish, b.1968) and Bill Thompson (American, b.1970) of Office of Experiments (UK, est.2004)
Monsoon Assemblages and Office of Experiments
Between the Dragonfly and the Barometer: Living Borders in a Changing Monsoon Climate
Album
Description
Between the Dragonfly and Barometer is an immersive installation that challenges and redefines ideas of border, scale, and agency. It is framed by the monsoon, a global weather system animated by the earth’s revolutions around the sun. It draws on climate data, field work, and immersive time-based media to convey how climate change and anthropocentric activity are resulting in increasing monsoon volatility, the shortening of monsoon rain periods, and more frequent and more extreme weather events. These have an impact on human and nonhuman life in the Indo-Pacific Region. In the installation this region is defined not by human bordering practices, but by the flight of a species of dragonfly (Pantala flavescens) that follows the monsoon from east Africa to south east Asia. Video of the dragonfly recorded and collected during fieldwork is projected into the exhibition space on the floor and visitors’ bodies as they walk through the installation. This highlights the vulnerability of the dragonfly to human-induced monsoonal shifts highlighting our interconnected scales of habitation.
Biennale Sneak Peek
Biennale Sneak Peek
Image 1 – How will we live together?
Globe skimmer dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) and monsoon clouds, Yangon, Myanmar.
© Beth Cullen
Image 2 – Sneak peek of the project
This drawing depicts the atmospheric forces over the Arabian Sea, the South Indian peninsula and the Bay of Bengal during the North-East monsoon, November 2015.
© John Cook, using NASA Earth Observations, NOAA and NCEP Climate Forecast Analysis data
WITH THE ADDITIONAL SUPPORT OF
European Research Council
University of Westminster
Production credits
Design: Monsoon Assemblages
Sensory Environment:
Electronics and Control Systems: Erik Kearney
Sound Composition: by Bill Thompson of Office of Experiments using audio and visual data by Monsoon Assemblages
Columns: Monsoon Assemblages with Fabrication Lab, University of Westminster, Jed Baron and James Merchant and SKB Sails
Print: Monsoon Assemblage
