Nomination
open-weather.community/year-of-weather
Open-weather’s Year of Weather (YoW) explores changing relations to weather and climate as the planet warms above 1.5 degrees Celsius. It unfolds as public access to environmental knowledge is threatened by attempts to dismantle US agencies such as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an institution that has provided satellite images to ground stations around the world since the 1970s. In 2025, this political climate coincides with the end of a private contract to maintain the last NOAA satellites to transmit analogue weather images.
Photo: Ruth Klückers
Photo: Open-weather
Photo: Open-weather
Photo: Teresa Cos
Photo: Teresa Cos
Photo: Teresa Cos
Photo: Open-weather
Photo: Open-weather
Together we ask: What is the political potential of archiving satellite imagery and weather observations at a time when publicly-funded environmental datasets are under threat? Which forms of knowledge on weather do we need to amplify in our communities?
The YoW activates the open-weather network, including more than one hundred DIY Satellite Ground Station operators, to generate a living, collective record of planetary weather and assert our access to environmental knowledge.
During the YoW, this material will be transposed into three online transmissions, each elevating a different dimension of the data and its contributors.
Credits
Project: Open-weather (Soph Dyer and Sasha Engelmann)
Design and code with Rectangle (Lizzie Malcom and Daniel Powers)
Open-weather apt decoder built in collaboration with Rectangle, Bill Liles (NQ6Z) and Grayson Earle
Automatic Ground Station hardware design and development with Grayson Earle
Drawings: Golrokh Nafisi
Open-weather extends authorship and gratitude to Automatic Ground Station hosts, members of the open-weather network, and all contributors to the open-weather Public Archive.
Automatic Ground Station Hosts: Alison Scott and Hospitalfield, Arbroath, UK; The Seaweed Institute and Goonown Growers, Cornwall, UK; COSMOS Astronomy Club MIT WPU, Pune, India; Cyprus Amateur Radio Society, Nicosia, CY; Filip Shatlan and Diana Engelmann, Gainesville, US; Steve Engelmann, Los Angeles, US; Heidi Neilson, Acra, US; Zack Wettstein, Seattle, US; Oppressive Heat Project, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Tsonami Arte Sonoro, Valparaiso, Chile; Centre for People, Place and Planet, Perth, Australia and Fondacio Hangar, Barcelona, ES.
With support from:
Open-weather is the recipient of funding through the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, in the framework of Sasha Engelmann’s early career Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship ‘Advancing Feminist and Creative Methods for Sensing Air and Atmosphere’ (2022–2024). In addition, open-weather has recently been awarded a British Academy Talent Development Award on ‘Community Data Weathering: piloting approaches to citizen-generated data on weather in a time of climate crisis.’
Current development of Year of Weather infrastructure is supported by a seed grant from the Open Science Hardware Foundation (US) AHRC and the British Academy.
Open-weather DIY Satellite Ground Station workshops have been supported and hosted by: Akademie Schloss Solitude (DE); Wagenhallen Kunstverein (DE); Lothringer 13 Halle (DE); Kunsthochschule, University of Kassel (DE); The Photographers Gallery London (UK); Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art (PL); Opolno Zdroj Community (PL); Onassis Stegi (GR); Croydon School for Girls (UK); Sonic Acts (NL); Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths University (UK); MA Art and Ecology, Goldsmiths University (UK); MA Design, Goldsmiths University (UK); Royal College of Art (UK); Vienna Architecture School (AU); Royal Holloway University of London (UK); Rhode Island School of Design (US); Royal Academy of Art (NL); Eindhoven Design Academy (NL); D21 Gallery (DE); Radio Web MACBA (ES)
Open-weather has held fully funded artist residencies at Akademie Schloss Solitude (DE, 9 months) and Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art (PL, 3 months).
Biography
Open-weather (INT) is a feminist experiment in imaging and imagining the earth and its weather systems using DIY tools. Co-led by researcher-designer Soph Dyer and geographer Sasha Engelmann since 2020, open-weather makes artworks, leads inclusive workshops, and develops resources on satellite imagery reception. A network has formed around the project, currently numbering more than one hundred DIY Satellite Ground Station operators around the world, from Buenos Aires to Berlin. Open-weather has been supported by UK research councils, artistic commissions and international residency programs.