Molecular Clouds is a large-scale interactive projection that explores themes of climate change. It was commissioned by LUTN (Light Up The North) and toured to four light festivals (Leeds Light Nights, Light Up Lancaster, Barnsley Bright Nights and Lightwaves Salford ) across the North West.
The concept for the work grew out of the question: What if we could see the invisible greenhouse gases in the air, how would it change our behaviour towards the planet? Molecular Clouds explores this question by revealing greenhouse gas molecules as colourful 3D forms that drift and float around us in the air. Audiences are invited to interact playfully with them, to reach up and ‘touch’ them, to make them disappear. The interactivity gives a sense of agency and hope, that we can make a difference if we work together.
In the work, we see the ozone layer above the earth changing over time (data captured by NASA), and the carbon atom as a spinning cloud of electrons. The science of climate change is represented through beautiful and dynamic visuals.
Ideas about night and day, the seen and the unseen run through the work. We see a sun, instead of the moon at night. We hear birds singing in the darkness – its the sound of nightingales. And an intricate drawing of a tree emerges from the ground, its branches slowly reaching up to the sky.
