Skyworms
LOCATION
John Dalton Building
Chester Street
Manchester
Greater Manchester
M1 5GD
United Kingdom
SPEAKER | Vladimir Janković, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester
ABSTRACT | Do artificial clouds count? How do we engage with industrial cumuli, urban-induced thunderstorms, smog, art clouds, and aircraft condensation trails (contrails)? Can these entities – and for whom – elicit aesthetic and moral responses similar to those triggered by ‘natural clouds.’ Why did Ansel Adams hate contrails and called them skyworms, even as he photographed them? Why did Dave Toussaint include a contrail in the pristine landscape of Ansel’s Yosemite? Where do such interventions leave the aesthetics of atmospheric forms conventionally representing the sublime and the untouched but which, in Bron Szerszynski words, are increasingly and irreversibly ‘marked’ by human activities?
This paper explores the artistic representation of artificial clouds with a particular interest in the history, symbolism and art of contrails. Drawing on the first one hundred years of their existence – they were first sighted during dog fights during the First World War – I explore the documentary, scientific and artistic rendering of contrails from Paul Nash and Ansel Adams to recent works of Nick Papadakis and Nop Briex. In exploring these works, I am particularly interested in how the contrail art flexes the conventional ideas about landscape and landscape art.
In this context, my argument builds on the question of how our knowledge of contrails affects our aesthetic appreciation of them. Does the fact that contrails represent a major contributor to aviation’s total radiative forcing inflects our sensibilities to the point at which they give way to moral imperatives of environmental ethics? Can one enjoy the sight of a contrail and still be an environmentalist? Acknowledging that the Anthropocene have made the atmosphere one of the most emblematic sites of society’s engagement with the weather, should the artistic representation of contrails and other condensational artifacts be read as a warning of an environmental decline, a caustic critique of industrial neoliberalism, or an ironic intervention that reminds us of the obsolescence of ‘nature’ as a framework of intellectual and artistic experience.
BIOGRAPHY | Dr Vladimir Janković is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Manchester's Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. He has published in the history of atmospheric research, urban climatology, environmental medicine, extreme weather, numerical weather prediction and industrial aspects of meteorological research. He has been funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Wellcome Trust, US National Science Foundation and US Social Science Research Council. He has served as President of the International Commission on the History of Meteorology. He was presenter of the five-episode series Storms of War on Discovery Channel. His books include Reading the Skies (Chicago, 2001) and Confronting the Climate (New York, 2010). He has edited several volumes in the history and social studies of climatology, including Intimate Universality (2009), Klima (2011), and City Weathers (2012). His current AHRC project is on the history of Soviet climatology. Vlad has been observing clouds since his Master degree in cloud physics but has recently presented his work on clouds in Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral at meetings at Tate Britain in London and Delacroix Museum in Paris.
Vladimir.jankovic@manchester.ac.uk
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/vladimir.jankovic.html
The meeting will take place at 6.00pm in Room C0.14 in the John Dalton Building.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served from 5:30pm onwards to provide the opportunity to chat with other members.
This meeting is part of the Royal Meteorological Society Meetings programme, open to all, from expert to enthusiast, for topical discussions on the latest advances in weather and climate. Free to attend. Non members are welcome.
SPEAKER | Vladimir Janković, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester
ABSTRACT | Do artificial clouds count? How do we engage with industrial cumuli, urban-induced thunderstorms, smog, art clouds, and aircraft condensation trails (contrails)? Can these entities – and for whom – elicit aesthetic and moral responses similar to those triggered by ‘natural clouds.’ Why did Ansel Adams hate contrails and called them skyworms, even as he photographed them? Why did Dave Toussaint include a contrail in the pristine landscape of Ansel’s Yosemite? Where do such interventions leave the aesthetics of atmospheric forms conventionally representing the sublime and the untouched but which, in Bron Szerszynski words, are increasingly and irreversibly ‘marked’ by human activities?
This paper explores the artistic representation of artificial clouds with a particular interest in the history, symbolism and art of contrails. Drawing on the first one hundred years of their existence – they were first sighted during dog fights during the First World War – I explore the documentary, scientific and artistic rendering of contrails from Paul Nash and Ansel Adams to recent works of Nick Papadakis and Nop Briex. In exploring these works, I am particularly interested in how the contrail art flexes the conventional ideas about landscape and landscape art.
In this context, my argument builds on the question of how our knowledge of contrails affects our aesthetic appreciation of them. Does the fact that contrails represent a major contributor to aviation’s total radiative forcing inflects our sensibilities to the point at which they give way to moral imperatives of environmental ethics? Can one enjoy the sight of a contrail and still be an environmentalist? Acknowledging that the Anthropocene have made the atmosphere one of the most emblematic sites of society’s engagement with the weather, should the artistic representation of contrails and other condensational artifacts be read as a warning of an environmental decline, a caustic critique of industrial neoliberalism, or an ironic intervention that reminds us of the obsolescence of ‘nature’ as a framework of intellectual and artistic experience.
BIOGRAPHY | Dr Vladimir Janković is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Manchester's Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. He has published in the history of atmospheric research, urban climatology, environmental medicine, extreme weather, numerical weather prediction and industrial aspects of meteorological research. He has been funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Wellcome Trust, US National Science Foundation and US Social Science Research Council. He has served as President of the International Commission on the History of Meteorology. He was presenter of the five-episode series Storms of War on Discovery Channel. His books include Reading the Skies (Chicago, 2001) and Confronting the Climate (New York, 2010). He has edited several volumes in the history and social studies of climatology, including Intimate Universality (2009), Klima (2011), and City Weathers (2012). His current AHRC project is on the history of Soviet climatology. Vlad has been observing clouds since his Master degree in cloud physics but has recently presented his work on clouds in Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral at meetings at Tate Britain in London and Delacroix Museum in Paris.
Vladimir.jankovic@manchester.ac.uk
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/vladimir.jankovic.html
The meeting will take place at 6.00pm in Room C0.14 in the John Dalton Building.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served from 5:30pm onwards to provide the opportunity to chat with other members.
This meeting is part of the Royal Meteorological Society Meetings programme, open to all, from expert to enthusiast, for topical discussions on the latest advances in weather and climate. Free to attend. Non members are welcome.