Two Weekends: June 5-6/12-13, 12-6 PM
Science Fair @ Flux Factory
39-21 29th Street, Long Island City
Featuring a WATER BAROMETER
by SP Weather Station in collaboration with Daniel Robie
The first barometer wasn’t invented to measure air pressure. In the 17th century, columns of water were used to disprove the church’s position that a true vacuum was impossible. What people found (eventually) is that water can only be raised about 33 feet from the ground with any suction pump. Galileo’s protege Evangelista Torricelli realized that such a column could be used to measure changes in the air. He also realized that a much denser fluid, such as mercury, registers those changes on a much smaller (more scientifically convenient) scale.
Who needs convenience? At Flux Factory for the first two weekends in June, SPWS and Dan Robie, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, York College, CUNY, are measuring pressure with a tube of water the height of Flux Factory, in homage to the barometer’s history. Come find out if it works!
In lieu of functioning data uploads, SPWS is relying non-digital weather sensing technologies.
Punxsutawney Phil Video
Phil’s prediction was also made available this year via SMS, by texting “Groundhog” to 247365 by Groundhog Day.
Thanks to Liz for the suggestion.
On Clouds
Observatory, Brooklyn
543 Union Street (at Nevins)
Through November 15th
featuring a Guest Lecture by SPWS on 10/21, 8pm!
In the first exhibition at Observatory, Brooklyn, on view through November 15th, James Walsh presents photos and prints in conjunction with an evening program of projections, performances, poetry, and other events by various artists throughout the run of the show.
James’ thoughtfully installed work includes a series of letterpress prints based on John Ruskin’s journals, paired with photographs of details of cloud-painting taken from dioramas in the American Museum of Natural History. In both, he considers how recording the clouds is an act of both ‘objective’ study and ‘subjective’ projection.
In conjunction with his show, James has invited a number of artists to reflect on this theme (in forms as varied and elusive as the clouds themselves!). In the gallery, Jen Bervin presents a spread from her book a non-breaking space. A series of evening events has included a reading by Joshua Beckman (we were invited to bring pillows; Joshua read texts by himself and others as we lay outstretched, eyes on the ceiling); a lecture by Klara Hobza (a tour through modern cloud classification, with lots of pictures, and a summary of current cloud-making practice); and a slideshow of work by Pauline Curnier Jardin and Catriona Shaw (with excerpts of their work-in-progress, a cloud-opera).
SPWS is happy to be participating:
October 21st, 8pm:
“Taxonomy of Taxonomy of Clouds,” an SPWS lecture in conjunction with:
a performative lecture by Madeline Djerejian + screenings of videos by Celeste Fichter, Birgit Rathsmann, James Walsh and Lisa Young / $5 suggested donation
Luke Strosnider, "April 2009"
SP Weather Station exhibition “Weather Reports” featured in the new issue of Philly Weekly!
Weather or Not:
A new exhibit at AHN/VHS focuses on meteorological data.
by Roberta Fallon of artblog
“If there’s angst or hysteria about global warming, it’s hidden in the group show “Weather Reports.” Instead of melting ice caps and imperiled polar bears, AHN/VHS’ quiet, small works show—which features drawings, prints, video and mixed media—focuses on the daily weather data recorded at Long Island City’s artist-run SP Weather Station….”
Read more!
On April 25th, Stephanie Rothenberg (www.pan-o-matic.com) introduced an audience at the SP Weather Station Base to the basics of divination, also known as dowsing.
The lecture and hands-on workshop gave attendees a point of entry into a a practice which continues to be widely practiced in numerous forms around the world.
The practice of divination, like the operation of a Personal Weather Station, is a way that individuals can take direct action in monitoring their immediate environment.
Despite a lack of scientific evidence for its efficacy, dowsing is likely the more widespread practice; while currently over 8,500 Personal Weather Stations upload data to Weather Underground from within the US and over 3,000 from other countries, one article estimates roughly 10,000 active dowsers in Germany alone.
Read more »
Stephanie Rothenberg: Introduction to Basic Divination
3 pm at SP Weather Station
http://tinyurl.com/3wbt6f
croquet and hanging out to follow
(watch out for the 7 train)
If you are coming to the SP Weather Station Guest Lecture tomorrow, Sunday at 3pm, please note that the 7 train is not running between Manhattan and Queensboro Plaza! The best way to get to the lecture will be to take the G or E to court square and walk west on 46th avenue, almost to the water. this googlemap shows where the side entrance is for our building – we’ll have a sign up & the door will be open (but ignore the street address as there are no street numbers on the building): http://tinyurl.com/3wbt6f
S.P. Weather Station Guest Lecture Series presents:
Introduction to Basic Divination
A workshop by Stephanie Rothenberg
Sunday May 25th, 3pm
(free and open to the public)
SP Weather Station, 46-01 5th Street, Long Island City, (go to side entrance on 46th Ave between 5th Street and Vernon Ave)
About the Workshop:
Divining, or dowsing as it is often times called, is the ultimate sustainable battery-free technology for getting the latest information. It is an ancient practice that was used by many cultures and continues to be used today. In the workshop, participants will be given an overview of basic divining and learn how to make their own divining rods from wire hangers and drinking straws. Stephanie has presented Divination Workshops at 16 Beaver Group, NYC and the Center for Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA.
About Stephanie Rothenberg:
Stephanie Rothenberg, a New York-based artist and educator, is the founder of Pan-O-matic (www.pan-o-matic.com), which brings together a diverse group of individuals interested in investigating our inter-personal relationship with new technologies. Since the rise of mass systemized culture in the early 20th century, the Western world has become increasingly dependent on technology to physically act for us and psychologically live for us. As our perception becomes increasingly subsumed by handheld devices telling us the where, when, what and how, Pan-O-matic strives to recalibrate our bodies and minds, attuning human perception to the mutable environment. Through the investigation of alternative tools and recombinant methodologies Pan-O-matic works at enabling us to regain our senses, or rather our own “sense-ability.”
Haruspication: fortune telling (e.g. weather forecasting) using animal innards
From environmentalgraffitti.com:
Paul Smokov, an 84 year old cattle rancher from Steele, N.D., claims that he has forecasted the weather with 85% accuracy by observing the shape of pig spleens. The National Weather Service, with their millions in high tech equipment, is about 60% accurate.
Smokov may be the last pig spleen weather forecaster left in North America. The editor of the Old Farmer’s Almanac said the only other spleen reader she had come in contact with had died in Saskatchewan, Canada last year.
Smokov learned the subtle art of spleen reading from his parents, Ukranian immigrants who arrived in the US in the early 20th century. With weather being so important to farmers, and a decades long lack of electricity at the family ranch denying radio forecasts, the family kept the practice of spleen forecasting alive.
more info here and here
DIY reportage, Department of Prediction, art-exhibit/artist, local environment, popular meteorology | Natalie | 
June 3, 2010 5:57 am | 
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