Since 2015, I have been an active member of the Aerocene Community: a multidisciplinary artistic project intervening in issues of fossil fuel extraction, global aeromobility regimes and public aerial health. Through the fabrication, launch and flight of solar-powered, balloon-like ‘aerosolar sculptures’ community members experiment with tools of atmospheric sensing and politics. Aerocene was initiated by artist Tomás Saraceno with the launch of the D-OAEC Aerocene sculpture at White Sands National Monument in November 2015. More information on Aerocene can be found at www.aerocene.org. This page brings together a few of the pedagogical, discursive, written and technical elements that have arisen out of my long-term participation in Aerocene.  

Sensing Art in the Atmosphere: Elemental Lures and Aerosolar Practices (Routledge, 2020)

My first book draws on six years of participation, collaboration and adventure with aerosolar communities and projects including Museo Aero Solar, Becoming Aerosolar and Aerocene in order to investigate the role of art in extending perception, generating movement and enlarging collective imaginaries in and of the atmosphere.

Aerocene Symposium, Palais de Tokyo:

In Autumn 2018 I curated and moderated events and workshops in the public programme at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, part of Tomás Saraceno’s “Carte Blanche” exhibition “On Air” (curated by Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel). The Aerocene Symposium on October 26th was an effort in bringing challenging questions animating the Aerocene community to the Palais de Tokyo through dialogues, gestures, and movements throughout the exhibition. More information here and here.

Aerosolar Pedagogies, Royal Holloway University of London

At Royal Holloway University’s Department of Geography, I design and deliver undergraduate courses that explore the spatial poetics and politics of air. As part of my third year undergraduate module “Atmospheres: Nature, Culture, Politics” my students prepare, launch and fly two Aerocene sculptures, and complete portfolio assessments based on their ability to link practice-based experiments with concepts. The Aerocene workshop is convened with the help of Aerocene Community Members Grace Pappas and Jol Thomson. In 2019, this course and its workshops was awarded a Teaching Excellence Commendation by Royal Holloway University.

Elemental Aesthetics

Together with Derek McCormack, I am exploring elemental aesthetics and politics. This has included the article, “Elemental Aesthetics: on Artistic Experiments in Solar Energy” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers. The article draws upon years of participatory research with the Aerocene community to reimagine our capacities to sense and engage with elemental matters, media and worlds. Abstract below, and full version here.

Aerocene at Exhibition Road, London:

In November 2016 the first Aerocene Campus took place at the Royal College of Art in London. The three-day event, part symposium and part-hackathon, was the result of collaboration between the Aerocene team; the Exhibition Road Cultural Commission; with support from the Goethe Institute in London. I curated the discursive element of the Aerocene Campus and co-edited the Aerocene Exhibition Road Reader (Vol. 1), a publication related to these events and activities. In the reader are versions of the talks given at the Aerocene Symposium by: Harriet Hawkins; Carlo Rizzo; Bronislaw Szerszynski; Holger Thus; Anne Jungblut; Tom Hill; Peter Adey; Derek McCormack; Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos; Sir Brian Hoskins; Samuel Hertz and Ronald Jones. Find a full PDF version here.

Aerocene Newspaper:

The first Aerocene Newspaper was released at the COP21 Climate Conference in Paris in December 2015, and includes short articles by Derek McCormack, Bronislaw Szerszynski, Kiel Moe, Nick Shapiro, Sanford Kwinter, Oliver Morton, Lodovica Ilari, Bill McKenna and Glenn Flierl, Jol Thomson and myself.  Please find a freely downloadable copy at: www. aerocene.com/newspaper

Or find a PDF of the newspaper here.