title: Climate Control: Weather Damage Modification Program

description: Climate Control: Weather Damage Modification Program is an interactive video installation that uses a control panel as an interface to hypothetically control the weather. Climate Control allows the viewer the experience of physically placing their hand on the controls of climate to manipulate a representation of it. The naming of the controls and the visual effect they produced was inspired by actual parameters associated with weather events. 

historical background: On March 21, 1952 lifeless black clouds began to fall upon Orgonon, Maine.  These clouds are said to have quieted the birds, struck fear into the animals, and de-saturated the landscape of its luster – even causing the plants to droop with sorrow.  This ‘black cloud,’ determined to be caused by Deadly Orgone Radiation (DOR), seemed to get stuck over Orgonon and decisive measures needed to be taken in order to rescue the town from certain demise. (1) Psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich began conducting experiments, founded on the working principles of water divination and lightning rods, to attract the positive Orgone Radiation (OR) and to disperse these DOR clouds.  By using long metal pipes pointed at the clouds, Reich discovered an ‘instantaneous’ reduction of the DOR clouds.  Within a very short period of time, Orgonon was relieved of its impending doom.  Reich called his invention a ‘Cloud-buster’ and soon realized that his device could not only remove DOR clouds but could also be used on normal rain clouds – either to cause them to dissipate or draw them into a desired area. (2)

Scientific experimentation with weather modification was also being conducted by the General Electric Corporation facility in Schenectady, New York.  In 1946, scientist Bernard Vonnegut had discovered that dropping silver iodide into a cloud would cause the water vapor to crystallize and become heavier, which would result in rain or snow. (3) This process, known as ‘cloud-seeding’ became popular for locally producing snow, fighting wildfires and drought. The Chinese government is currently using this technology to curb pollution in Beijing before the 2008 Olympics. (4)  The United States is sponsoring a program called the Weather Damage Modification Program (from whence Climate Control got its name), the goal for which is to support weather modification research in Southwestern states. (5)

at issue: Climate change differs from other environmental disorders, such as pollution or over-consumption, in the fact that we do not experience ourselves causing the change.  When we pollute we often see the environmental change happen before our eyes (smoke, erosion, litter, etc.).  Also, when we over-consume, we sometimes experience the breakdown of a system: for instance grid failure (blackouts) on a hot summer day.   It’s very difficult to point to changes in climate and know with certainty that the changes were human induced. It is perhaps the lack of this sense/perception that removes any culpability at the individual level, making climate change difficult to comprehend. However, weather modification, as is currently being undertaken, seeks to extend the human grasp into this realm of controlling climate.  This led me to question our human goals for understanding climate and our concerns about climate change. What would it mean to place controls on our exterior climate the way we control our interior climate – a knob to control temperature or a switch to turn precipitation on or off?

interface: The controls on the interface were intentionally designed to be overly technical and difficult for the audience to comprehend – an aesthetic of technological and scientific interfaces. The concept of this work is not about the actual physical interaction of the viewer with the work, but instead about the interaction between the hand and Nature.
The remaining knobs and switches related to specific weather conditions and cloud seeding techniques.  Manipulation of these knobs and switches created a simulation, appearing on the video screen, of the associated weather conditions.  Accurate terminology was used to label each knob, and unless the viewer had an understanding of meteorology, the viewer would have to experiment with the system or consult documentation to learn what each knob does.    Documentation explaining the terminology and effect of each knob was provided in the program for the show.  (see "pdf" thumbnail to the left) 

sound: Sound was incorporated into the installation in order to heighten the sense of anxiety and to provide immediate feedback.  A quiet, low frequency sine wave was used as a droning sound – similar to the 60hz hum common in electronic devices.  This was intended to give the user the impression that the unit is powerful and dangerous – hopefully adding to trepidation when using the piece. Subtle modulations were heard in the frequency of the sound as users manipulated the knobs.

antenna: Attached to the Climate Control device is an antenna constructed of four copper tubes mounted on an older surveyor’s tripod.  This antenna is a replication of a device invented by Wilhelm Reich and used to affect the weather.  Reich’s use of this device mimicked the way a lightning rod attracts electricity.  In fact, Reich believed that electricity was merely a function of orgone energy.  His purpose for using these pipes was to draw the orgone energy from the sky into a water reservoir on land. (6)  Pointing the Cloud-buster antenna at a cloud would draw the orgone energy out of the cloud and dissipate it.  Conversely, pointing the antenna at clear sky would draw clouds into the area.  In this way Reich believed that he could control the weather.  For the Climate Control installation this antenna represents a device through which the black box communicates with the climate. The antenna should be installed to in the direction of desired application of the weather modification, preferably out an open window.

1. Reich, Wilhelm. Selected Writings; An Introduction to Orgonomy. (1951) (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973), 435-440.

2. Mann, W. Edward. Orgone, Reich and Eros: Wilhelm Reich’s Theory of Life Energy. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973),226.

3. “Bernard Vonnegut – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.”  Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Vonnegut (October 2007).

4. MacLeod, Calum. USATODAY.COM - China rolls out the big guns, aiming for a dry Olympics. (June 29, 2006).
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-29-china-rain_x.htm (October 2007).

5. Hunter, Steven M., Medina, J. and Matthews, D. A. 7.1 The Weather Damage Modification Program.
http://ams.confex.com/ams/Annual2005/techprogram/paper_82476.htm (October 2007)

6. Reich, Wilhelm. Selected Writings; An Introduction to Orgonomy. (1951) (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973), 447.

format: interactive video installation

exhibitions:

2008
Feet To The Fire Festival - Exploring Global Climate Change From Science to Art, Veteran's Park, Middletown, CT

2007
"Climate Control" West Hall Gallery, Rensselaer Polytechnic, Troy, NY