An Inward Outlook: loneliness and the weather
An Inward Outlook: loneliness and the weather was broadcast on Radiophrenia in May 2019 from Centre of Contemporary Arts, Glasgow.
Addressing how social isolation is arguably increasing in a paradoxically networked society whilst climate change highlights an overarching global connection of environmental responsibility to one other, artist Kin presents: ‘An Inward Outlook: loneliness and the weather’.
Questioning our role in models that foster loneliness and disconnect, Kin takes a closer look at the role of choice, agency and the difference between loneliness and solitude in a discussion with disabled artist and curator Aidan Moesby.
Exploring a shared interest in how digital technology mediates social interactions, our changing relationship with nature and internal/external spaces, they explore the physical experience of emotion and how similarly physical experiences of the weather can influence mood. Referencing research from the Centre for the History of Emotions (QMUL), they discuss the role of touch in creating the conditions for loneliness to arise.
In the background we hear Brewing, Kin’s sound art installation commissioned by Aidan as part of his Emotional Weather Bureau. Sine waves controlled by real-time temperature data (shaped by the amount of people in the physical space surrounding the installation) explore what ‘warmth’ means; in digital, social and environmental landscapes. The audio is played via transducer speakers up through an array of tea cups arranged much like the WIFI symbol. The sound waves ripple the liquid’s surface, which in the installation set up is used to projection map moving weather imagery.
Finishing the programme is Kin’s alternative shipping forecast that lulls with slumbering tones, encoding digital social interactions, trend maps and online sentiment analysis to predict climate conditions for those able to decode its meaning.
Written, recorded and produced by artist Kin.
Featuring artist and curator Aidan Moesby.
For Aidan’s work, visit aidanmoesby.co.uk or find him on Twitter @textartist