Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Expanding Stories

Evolution of the Castle Hill site from botanical research station to Museum Discovery Centre

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Powerhouse Renewal

A transformative renewal program across four sites

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

2024

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

Sydney Design Week

Across Sydney12—24 Sep

2023

Program Sydney Science Festival 2023

Atmospheric Memory

Name: Atmospheric Memory
Start: 2023-08-12T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2023-11-05T06:00:00.000Z
Location: Ultimo

Exhibition

Ended 5 Nov 2023

Ultimo

Interact with artworks in an immersive environment filled with light, sound and colossal projections.

Inspired by computing pioneer Charles Babbage’s proposal that the air is a ‘vast library’ storing every word ever spoken, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s breathtaking immersive art environment invites audiences to a multisensory experience at the intersection of art and science. Control 18 interactive artworks and surround yourself with light, sound and colossal projections as you walk through the chambers of Atmospheric Memory.

If we could 'rewind' air molecules to recreate all voices of the past, whose voice would you want to hear?

‘I hope the project makes the atmosphere tangible so it’s no longer seen as something neutral or invisible we take for granted. It is something complex, beautiful and irreversible.’

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Artist

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working with ideas from architecture and performance. He was the first artist to officially represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale with a monographic exhibition in 2007.

He has also shown at Biennials such as Havana, Istanbul, Kochi, Liverpool, Mercosul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney.

Lozano-Hemmer was the subject of 75 solo exhibitions worldwide, including a major show at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, the inaugural show at the AmorePacific Museum in Seoul and a mid-career retrospective co-produced by the MAC in Montréal and SFMOMA.

In 2019, his interactive installation Border Tuner connected people across the US-Mexico border using bridges of light controlled by the voices of participants.

Curator

José Luis de Vicente is a cultural researcher and curator. In 2023 he was appointed director of DHUB, Barcelona's Design Museum.

His work investigates the impacts of technological and cultural innovation through artifacts, systems, and narratives. His projects create contexts for collaboration and dialogue between artists, designers, architects, technologists, scientists, activists, and communities.

He was the founder and Artistic Director of Sónar+D, the arts and ideas program of the acclaimed Sónar Festival in Barcelona. He was also the co-founder of Model, the Barcelona Architectures Festival, and curator of public art and light festival LlumBCN.

He has curated multiple exhibitions such as Mirador Torre Glóries, Big Bang Data and After the End of the World (both at CCCB), and Curiosidad Radical : in the Buckminster Fuller Orbit (Espacio Fundación Telefónica / ArtScience Museum Singapore).

‘Inventive and provocative’

The Sunday Times

Room filled with projections on every surface

This exhilarating show features historical artifacts mixed with cutting-edge technologies from AI, robotics, endoscopy and fluid-dynamics to nanotechnology, mapping and 3D-printing.

In Atmospheric Memory you can touch the world's first 3D-printed speech bubble, see your voice travel in a ripple tank, walk through clouds of text written in mid-air, hear 3,000 speakers each with its own field recording, and interact with virtual environments in a colossal 360-degree projection chamber.

What is the atmosphere trying to tell us?

The Universal Machine: Uncovering Ada’s Legacy

Writing Objects: Toby Walsh

Resources Library

'The Atmospheric Memory project calls for action against the catastrophic collapse of the atmospheric conditions for planetary survival; against the concentration of all the power of the digital atmosphere into very few hands; and against the weaponisation of the sky'
– Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

In a world where nothing is forgotten and everything is recorded, it is possible to dream and plan for a better future. Take action and connect to people and organisations making positive change. Here are some sites for more information and atmospheric activism.

Resources

An engine with six ferrous metal shafts supporting various bronz wheels with engraved numbers — 1/5
'Difference Engine No 1' Calculating Engine
Object No. 96/203/1

Mist below mountains range — 2/5
Glass plate negative, full plate, 'View into a Valley with Rising Mists', unattributed studio, Sydney, Australia, c. 1880–1923
Object No. 85/1286-101

3/5
'Activism Is Learning' placard made by Tracy Allen, Springwood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, used at the Sydney Climate Strike, September 2019
Object No. 2020/48/1

Phonograph made from metal and wood — 4/5
Phonograph, spring driven model made by the London Stereoscopic Company, London, United Kingdom, 1885–1891
Object No. H3168

Punch cards with sample of ribbon in a box shape — 5/5
Punch cards with sample of ribbon, Jacquard weaving loom c. 1875–1900
Object No. 2010/1/272

Atmospheric Memory proudly supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW Blockbusters Funding initiative

Commission Acknowledgement

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Science and Industry Museum (UK), FutureEverything, ELEKTRA / Arsenal Contemporary Art, Montreal and Carolina Performing Arts - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Originally produced by Manchester International Festival with FutureEverything and Science and Industry Museum (UK).