Atmospheres

What can the wind teach us about our city’s infrastructure and our own needs for comfort? Atmospheres manifests this powerful force into a series of soaring soft sculptures, sound, and video that both generates and visualizes environmental data collected under the Gardiner.

While we know we can’t see the wind, it’s possible that we can hear, see, and feel the effects of it: the howl as it blows through the trees, the kite flying across the field, or the refreshing breeze that cools you down on a hot day. But what does this natural force have to teach us about our city’s infrastructure and our own level of comfort, especially along such a unique urban corridor?   

Atmospheres is the second phase of Adaptive Artifacts, an interactive art and technology project that explores how environmental conditions such as wind, temperature, and humidity impact human comfort in public spaces. As a site of active urban transformation, The Bentway’s unique microclimate presents an opportunity to investigate our unique weather patterns, and their impact on the visitor experience.Atmospheres makes manifest the wind through moving physical sculptures, video, and a generative audio composition that uses environmental data collected from The Bentway site. Visitors are invited inside a viewing and listening station, an immersive space that distances the visitor from the wind and intense urban environment, so that they can examine these conditions re-imagined as audio and video. Outside, hanging above and along this urban corridor is a series of soft sculptures that move with the wind. Their movement is monitored and combined with both realtime and historical weather data to produce a data stream, while visuals and soundscapes are presented in response to this data stream. Through this multi-sensory experience, this invisible natural force is made visible, and visitors are invited to contemplate the unique power wind, temperature, and sound play in shaping perceptions of comfort in public space.

What to expect:

• A site-specific installation using suspended kites to depict the power and influence of the wind.
• A large shipping container on site creates a listening and viewing station, with visuals and sounds created from the wind data.
• A portion of the piece can be experienced from within a shipping container. At this time, the entrance to the shipping container is not accessible to mobility devices.
• The interior listening and viewing station will be open 1pm-9pm on weekdays, and 10am-9pm on weekends. The exhibition will be closed on Mondays, with the exception of holidays.
• All gender and accessible washrooms available during 1 – 8:30pm on weekdays, and 10am – 8:30pm on weekends. The washrooms will be closed on Mondays, with the exception of holidays.
• Elements of the project will be accessible via QR codes and may require mobile devices and access to the internet to experience. 
• All didactic text and QR codes will be placed at ground level and accessible. 

Commissioned by The Bentway

Supported by:

• Knight Foundation
• Canada Council for the Arts

Special thanks to:

• The High Line Network
• Kites Fabricated by: Phase Two Media
• Screen Mount Fabricated by: Daniel Antonucci
• Engineering by Blackwell
• Audio Visual by Phase 3 AV
• Artist Assistant: Jeff Hunwicks