This is a commissioned work by Five Points Art Center for permanent installation on the new campus and as an online web project. It collects weather data in real time from a tower on the grounds and combines it with live RSS news feeds from CNN, New York Times, and Al Jazeera into a live data visualization. The background glitch images are sets of stills from video that change in sync with the change in solar exposure. Each still, within each set, changes syncronously with the wind speed. The point of origin of the lines coincides with the wind direction - north, south, east, west. The frequency of lines draw with regard to the wind speed and humidity combined. The color of the news feed changes with the time of day. The visualization contrasts a representation of local physical conditions with international cultural and social conditions in the world.
Special thanks go to Amanda Bunce whose Ph.D. research is based on the data generated by this weather tower to assess climatic conditions and their effect on tree growth and sustainability. The project was programmed by Tim Lawless with weather data programming by Amanda Bunce.
Weather or Not: Current Conditions was funded by the Torrington Savings Bank to whom we are grateful.
