Support Materials Art-Science
ALBEDO CRNS PROJECT (2021) Initiated during my AIR at Résidence 1+2
Partners involved (think of artists/ producers/ industry/ science collaborators)
Résidence 1+2, Toulouse
Catherine Jeandel, Director of Research at CNRS and Laboratory Studies in Geophysics and Space Oceanography (LEGOS).
Christophe Cassou, climatologue/ GIEC author. Director of Research at CNRS specialized on Climate Modeling at The European Center for Advanced Research and Training in Scientific Computing (CERFACS).
Vincent Dubourg, deputy director for balloons mission and experimentation at the French Space Agency (CNES).
Michael Toplis, Director of the Observatoire du Pic du Midi de Bigorre and affiliated with the Institute of Research in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP).
Instrumentation and prototype developed
Imprinting device in situ. Live forecasting gas and microparticule; carbon dioxide, methane and blackcarbon.
Visualisation the invisible drivers of climate change - atmospheric gas and microparticules; carbon dioxide, methane and blackcarbon. High concentration of co2 and film.
Remote imaging, instruments and data with the Laboratory Studies in Geophysics and Space Oceanography (LEGOS).
Programming and data from the Climate Modeling research of Christophe Cassou at The European Center for Advanced Research and Training in Scientific Computing (CERFACS).
Field forecasting, Data and instrumentation from the Stratospheric balloons at the French Space Agency (CNES).
Absorption and emission spectra, mass spectrometry instrument from the Institute of Research in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP).
VISUALIZING THE INVISIBLE DRIVERS OF CLIMATE CHANGE — ATMOSPHERIC GAS AND MICRO PARTICULES; CARBON DIOXYDE, METHANE AND BLACKCARBON. A WORK IN COLLABORATION WITH CNRS/LEGOS AND THE SCIENTIST CATHERINE JEANDEL .
In an artist-researcher approach, Laure hikes across the mountain in search of clues and traces - faithful to this art of investigation of which Tim Ingold speaks - and to put them into perspective in the face of climate change and anthropogenic pressures on the Pyrenees Mountains.
The ALBEDO project is based on long-term research around natural elements and offers an experimental photographic study on the traces that climatic fluctuations and dynamics draw on earth and on matter. To understand these markers of change, she surrounds herself with a multidisciplinary team whose approaches focus on climatology, and their measurement instruments. An exchange is created with researchers from different practices and scientific disciplines of the CNRS - Matter and Climate Sciences. The different lines of research revolve around measuring instruments; stratospheric balloons, radars, sensors, like ARGOS, LEGOS. The traces of climate change on the Pic du Midi de Bigorre with the OMP - Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, as well as anthropogenic traces with research on microplastics in the atmosphere of Gaël Leroux from the Functional Ecology and Environment Laboratory CNRS Occitanie-Ouest.
ALBEDO makes it possible to encounter the mountain, to come closer to it and to join the expedition with a photographic solarization device in situ on the back. The Device is transported on each expedition and takes place almost performatively in the landscape. The image is then constructed with the physical engagement of the territory. The photographic traces of the expedition are accompanied by samples, eroded material taken from the place of printing as well as the location data. During the expedition, the collected material becomes a geographic trace as well as a pigment base in the photosensitive solution. In situ printing takes into account all elements - solar radiation, weather conditions, atmospheric gases, minerals.
ALBEDO highlights the importance of the mountain for all the ecosystems it hosts and protects. Time does not fade away. The earth continually imprints what is done there. The aim of this engaged initiative is to get the data out of the laboratories so that they can take part in the public debate. A human and sensitive dimension of science, which allows transgressions, metaphors and counterpoint.
This project ended up also in editing a book by Filigranes Editions (Paris) - a tour of peaks that is held in our hands like a small testimony, and in this preciousness embodies an ecosystem that we know to be in danger. It brings us directly back to our own physical and sensory relationship to the perception of this fragile environment.
(Series 1)
The series was built with the idea of getting closer to climate issues via a sensory connection. How to give shape to this question beyond the fiber of the curve and the figures? The various traces of climatic fluctuations are present in the series in the form of samples, the inventory of materials (circles) as well as the small experimental formats in the display case. The different traces are as follows; atmospheric gases and fine particles in the atmosphere including Sahara sand, pink algae, microplastics and black carbon. The in situ printing device is also present. The black prints are printed in real time with the light of the Altidude Observatory, the carbon black is collected directly in the filters utilised by the aerology researchers and forms the basis of the prints.
(Series 2)
The second experimental phase of this project, the second prototype, was born from a dialogue with Catherine Jeandel (research director at CNRS / OMP / LEGOS).
Catherine Jeandel, along with Christophe Cassou (main author 6th IPCC report 2021-2022), is co-founder of Train du Climat. She is very committed to the climate issue and involved in numerous popularization and conference actions as well as for art / science projects, notably at the Avignon Theater Festival. Regarding researchers, it is now essential to bring about other visions of climate change other than the curve, the temperature rise or even the iconic «polar bear». We therefore collaborated and exchanged for several months on greenhouse gases. This exchange lead to the birth of our art / science research duo with the common goal: to make visible the largest invisible conductor of climate change - atmospheric gases. But how to meet this challenge - to show the invisible, the colorless, the odorless?
From March to September 2021, we worked side by side in the CNRS laboratories to find the instruments that allow us to study the invisible. After many experiments with the mass spectrometer, absorption and emission lines (and many others! I’ll spare you the complete list here), finally it is with reactors with high concentrations of carbon dioxide, of methane and black carbon that we were able to discover a result. After enclosing the photographic films in reactors with high gas concentrations for a month, we discovered that with a certain temperature the gas will attack the sensitive film in different ways depending on the nature of the gas. The CO2 attack is very punctual and concentrated, the methane attack is more rhizomic, while the carbon black covers the sensitive surface much more. (see the visuals of the exhibition) The sensitivity of the photographic instrument accounts for the attack of these gases and gives them shape - The photographed landscape is destroyed little by little attacked by pollutants. CQFD.
We decided not to stop there for the dissemination of our discovery. The light spectra being a very important element in our research, we approached the technique of «spectrum of absorption lines». The reflected light, passing through a body - here the negative attacked by polluting gases - projects the shape of the gas onto the wall.
The resulting edition of this project is presented as a tower of peaks that is held in our hands like a small testimony, and in this preciousness embodies an ecosystem that we know to be in danger. It brings us directly back to our own physical and sensory relationship to the perception of our environment. ALBEDO highlights the importance of the mountain for all the ecosystems it hosts and protects. Time does not fade away. The earth continually imprints what is done there.
This project resulted in an exhibition in Toulouse in November 2021, mediation cycle, as well as a box set published by Filigranes RHIZOME / 2021, several publications Sciences et Vie, Art Even (Jan 21).