WEATHER SCULPTURES & SCORES: NATHALIE MIEBACH

NATHALIE MIEBACH

For many people, beautiful weather means warm sunny days with blue skies and gentle breezes. For others, it means brisk air and fresh powder. Some love walking in the rain with the ones they love. Some love being in a fog. For artist Nathalie Miebach, all weather in inherently beautiful because it is a result of mathematical ratios and systems. She takes weather data from massive storms and turns it into complex sculptures that embody the forces of nature and time. Then, she turns them into musical scores.

“Data artists,” like Miebach, create conceptual works using information collected by mobile apps, GPS trackers, and other scientific instruments, working with large bodies of scientific data. Miebach specializes in data from the interactions of barometric pressure, wind and temperature readings.

“My work focuses on the intersection of art and science and the visual articulation of scientific observations,” Miebach explains. “Using the methodologies and processes of both disciplines, I translate scientific data related to astronomy, ecology and meteorology woven sculptures.”

In a recent TED Talk, Miebach presented weather data that were recorded during Hurricane Noel in 2007, translated a 3D graph sculpture which, in turn, was translated into a musical composition, played by a string ensemble. Every single bead and colored band in the piece represents a weather element that can also be read as a musical note.

Weather is made up of complex systems, most of which only become visible once they reach a certain threshold and many of which are inherently invisible to the naked eye. Miebach expresses these in the forms of sculpture and music to make weather, not just visible, but also tactile and audible.

It begins simply. Miebach extracts information from a specific environment using very low-tech data collecting devices -- generally things you might find in an ordinary hardware store. She then compares her data to historical and real time data from satellite images, weather stations, and offshore buoys, which she gathers from the Internet. She then compiles all of the numbers on these clipboards and begins to focus on just two or three variables, mapping each value.

Miebach constructs a 3D grid and assigns values to the vertical and horizontal elements. Vertical elements are assigned a specific hour of the data. She uses changes of those data points over time to create the form. “I use natural reed, because natural reed has a lot of tension in it that I cannot fully control,” Miebach explains. “That means that it is the numbers that control the form, not me.”

These forms are completely made up of weather data or science data. The elements reveal behavioral relationships that may not come across through a two-dimensional graph. Miebach weaves in the high tide readings, water temperature, air temperature and Moon phases.

“What I love about this work is that it challenges our assumptions of what kind of visual vocabulary belongs in the world of art, versus science,” Miebach explains.

By visualizing and contextualizing data in this way, Miebach hopes to inspire a greater awareness of complex matters that affect the entire world.

“Central to this work is my desire to explore the role visual aesthetics play in the translation and understanding of science information. By utilizing artistic processes and everyday materials, I am questioning and expanding boundaries through which science data has been traditionally visually translated (ex: graphs, diagrams), while at the same time provoking expectations of what kind of visual vocabulary is considered to be in the domain of ‘science’ or ‘art’.”

For Miebach’s most recent project, “Recording and Translating Climate Change,” she gathered weather observations from specific ecosystems using very simple data-collecting devices. The numbers were then compared to historical / global meteorological trends, before being translated into sculpture. “By examining the complex behavioral interactions of living/non-living systems between weather and an environment, I hope to gain a better understanding of complexity of systems and behaviors that make up weather and climate change,” she explains.

In translating this data into musical scores, interpreted through sculptures as well as through collaborations with musicians, Miebach aims to convey a nuance or “level of emotionality” surrounding her research and to reveal patterns in the data that musicians might identify which she had failed to see.

Nathalie Miebach is represented by the Miller Yezerski Gallery.

Read more about Wonderful Weather in  8 Most Beautiful Winter Trips,  Fabulous Fog Photos: Michael Shainblum, and  Superbad Super-Beautiful Storms: Chad Cowan.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: “Sibling Rivalry.” Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach. “Intersections: Artists Master Line and Space” Exhibition. Courtesy of Akron Art Museum.
2. Image: “The Andrea Gail.” “Storms, Gales, and Blizzards” Series. Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach.
3. Image: “The Ride.” “The Sandy Rides” Series. Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach.
4. Image: “Warm Winter.” “Changing Weather” Series. Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach.
5. Image: “Gulf of Maine.” “The Little Ones” Series. Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach.
6. Image: “I Dreamed She’ll Ride Us All Again.” “The Sandy Rides” Series. Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach.
7. Image: Detailed view at “Changing Waters.” Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach.
8. Image: “Hurricane Noel.” “Storms, Gales, and Blizzards” Series. Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach.
9. Image: “Urban Weather Prairies – Symphonic Studies in D.” Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach. Courtesy of Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts.
10. Image: Detailed view of “Changing Weather.” Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach.
11. Image: “Musical Buoy in Search Towards a New Shore.” Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach.
12. Image: “Build Me a Platform, High in the Trees, So I may See the Water.” “The Sandy Rides” Series. Sculpture created by Nathalie Miebach. Courtesy of Ellen Miller Gallery.