generic snow
| 2010 |
| software interface for the transformation of enviromental data into materials |
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 |
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| cellular automaton -> | generating a grafic based on weather data -> | laser cutting the grafic design |
artistical snowdata modelling based on environmental data
The "artists in labs" programme enabled Yvonne Weber to work as an artist in residence at the SLF from March until November 2010. During this period, she explored the raw data and models generated by snow research and gave them a fresh artistic interpretation. Using the snow and water data captured by the automatic measuring stations in Davos, she calculated the shapes of snow crystals and transformed them into three-dimensional snowpack sculptures.
In the form of computer data, snow is an intangible and invisible material for the artist – it can be neither touched nor seen. The data can be converted into a different form, however, and depicted as a sculpture. When abstracted in this way, the snow becomes visible and tangible again. Given that the hexagon is the fundamental shape of a snow crystal, the artist based her sculptures on a grid of hexagons. Using the weather data and the models employed by researchers, she calculated and constructed the geometric shapes of the crystals – their exact form, depending on the temperature and moisture conditions, then placed them in the grid. From this grid she produced an illustration containing a variety of snow structures. With the aid of a laser she cut snow crystals out of paper, fabric and metal and created the final sculptures. Yvonne Weber's work embodies the transformation of digital weather data into an artificial snowpack that is at once tangible and artistic.