Open Weather: building networks for nowcasting the weather

[sasha-intheair]

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Sophie Dyer and Sasha Engelmann
Open Weather: building networks for nowcasting the weather

Description

Open-weather is a project by Sophie Dyer and Sasha Engelmann probing the noisy relationships between bodies, atmospheres and weather systems through experiments in amateur radio, open data and feminist tactics of sensing and séance.
Open-weather encompasses a series of how-to guides, critical frameworks and public workshops on the reception of satellite images using free or inexpensive amateur radio technologies. When possible, we work with open source software and hardware. We focus on access to technology and we strive for equity. In a feminist mode, we ask: who or what gains power from satellite imagery, radio technology and meteorological data?

On September 6th 2020, open-weather collaborators and extended networks co-produced a global weather ‘nowcast’ for the OurNetworks festival. The nowcast is composed of 14 unique weather recordings made by 13 people with their own independent satellite ground stations at different geographical locations. Sophie and Sasha will discuss the nowcast during OurNetworks on Saturday September 12th at 2:30-3:30pm ET (UTC-4). Browse the full nowcast and explore individual contributions at: https://open-weather.community/

The nowcast from September 6th 2020 includes contributions from: Audrey Briot; Sofia Caferri; Sophie Dyer M6NYX; Sasha Engelmann M6IOR; Steve Engelmann; Joaquin Ezcurra; Jacques Gentil; Bill Liles NQ6Z; L. Paul Verhage KD4STH; Yoshiki Matsuoka JF1SAG; Ankit Sharma; Zack Wettstein; WXVids

Sasha and Sophie want to express their deepest gratitude to Piper Haywood for her efforts creating and launching https://open-weather.community/

Type: streamed talk and virtual performance-demo an exhibition
Length: 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Date: between August 7-9.
Duration: once
Language: english

Objectives

1. Sharing the Open Weather platform with the Our Networks community. Exchanging ideas with Our Networks participants for mutual aid and participation across networks.
2. Imagining what a feminist, open source method of weather sensing, nowcasting and forecasting might look like. In doing so, questioning the power hierarchies and smooth aesthetics embedded in institutional meteorology and climate science.
3. Making concrete tools, resources and guides for radio-based weather sensing available to the Our Networks community.

Material and Technical Requirements

Platform: we will employ a videoconferencing platform to screen our talk and our virtual performance-demo.
Technical considerations: no max number of participants.
Accessibility: We aim to make this talk and demo as accessible as possible by avoiding jargon, opening up our process and sharing our tools and resources.

We will employ a videoconferencing platform such as Jitsi to screen our live talk and performance-demo. We will use an internet browser, the Open Weather archive, the satellite decoding software WXtoImg and a series of pre-archived raw weather images for the live demonstration element. We do not require any additional resources but would be happy to use a videoconferencing platform recommended by the Our Networks team, as long as it allows for screen share and sound.

Presenters

Sophie Dyer and Sasha Engelmann
Emails: [email protected]; [email protected]
Urls: http://www.sophiedyer.net/ ; http://www.sashaengelmann.com
Twitter: @sophiecdyer; @Sashacakes
Github: http://github.com/sophiedyer ; http://github.com/sasha-intheair

Presenter Bios

Sophie Dyer is a designer specialised in visual and open source investigations. She leads the Decoders project for Amnesty International's Crisis Evidence Lab. Previously, she worked with the remote casualty monitor, Airwars, to reconcile local claims of civilian harm with the US military's reporting. Sophie recently wrote the article What would A Feminist Open Source Investigation Look Like? Over the ether her call sign is M6NYX after the Greek goddess of the night. She co-edits Concrete Flux.

Sasha Engelmann is a creative geographer whose research draws together environmental sensing practices, contemporary art and the politics of air and atmosphere. She is Lecturer in GeoHumanities at Royal Holloway University of London, and a current fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart. Her book Sensing Art in the Atmosphere: Elemental Lures and Aerosolar Practices will be published by Routledge in Autumn 2020. On the airwaves she is M6IOR.