Preserving the atmosphere is widely considered today as a civilizational imperative, and the central pillar in humanity’s ability to prevent the existential threat of climate change. Yet what is meant by the terms “preservation” or “atmosphere” in this case, and the potential opened up by bringing them into mutual proximity, is seldom seriously questioned or explored. The result is that the most outdated preservation ideas are being uncritically floated as the only solutions, such as returning the atmosphere to its “original” pre-industrial condition. If the consensus in learned preservation circles is that such returns to the “original condition” of heritage are both technically impossible, deontologically questionable, and ethically undesirable, then a serious rethinking of these terms, as well as more creative and inclusive approaches to preserving the atmosphere are sorely needed.
The 2023 Fitch Colloquium will bring prominent figures from preservation, art, architecture, science, and technology whose influential work is helping to redefine what the atmosphere is understood to be. Speakers include: Michael Morris, curator, co-creator of The World Weather Network, and Co-Director emeritus of Artangel (UK); Gisela Winckler, Lamont Research Professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Associate Director of the Geochemistry Division; Shona Illingworth, artist and Professor in Art, Film and Media at the University of Kent (UK), and co-founder of Air Space Tribunal; Giuliana Bruno, historian, Emmet Blakeney Gleason Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University and author of Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media (Chicago, 2022); Nerea Calvillo, architect and Associate Professor at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick (UK) and author of Aeropolis: Queering Air in Toxic Polluted Worlds (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2023); David Gissen, author, designer, Professor of Architecture and Urban History at The New School, and author of Manhattan Atmospheres (Minnesota, 2013); Lindsey Wikstrom, architect, co-founder of Mattaforma, and author of Designing the Forest and Other Mass Timber Futures (Routledge, 2023); Mark Wasiuta, curator, co-director of Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices program at GSAPP, and co-designer of “Instructions for the Reconstitution of Historical Smog” (2011); Anna Lea Albright, Postdoctoral Researcher, Laboratory for Dynamic Meteorology, Sorbonne University (France); and others.
These speaker’s projects and research will present new insights about the cultural and physical nature of the atmosphere, offering glimpses into new artistic and scientific understandings of the atmosphere(s) and their implications for forward looking strategies for its preservation.
These implications are important for preservationists to consider: if current atmospheric preservation strategies are the outcome of finely tuned responses to existing scientific knowledge about the atmosphere, then as this knowledge evolves, preservation strategies must also evolve. The presentations and dialogues will explore potential directions for that evolution, including various experimental preservation approaches that account for the new dual understanding of the atmosphere as both a physical and a cultural phenomenon, of the atmosphere as both a gaseous suspension of dusts, and as cultural heritage. The Fitch Colloquium will therefore explore new experimental preservation approaches at the intersection of art and science, architecture and technology, the humanities and climate.
The colloquium will be divided into three panels, each exploring the relationship between current and future experimental approaches to the preservation of atmospheric heritage. The presentations will look forward to the future as well as back to the past. They will explore the rich history that current approaches have within the discipline of preservation. These vary in scale from the planetary to the microscopic, including the protection of the night sky against artificial light pollution, of daytime atmospheric long-range visibility against the haze of pollution, of mid-range viewsheds against visual encroachments, of indoor museum atmospheres that protect art collections, to encapsulated inert atmospheres to protect fragile heritage objects. Current preservation approaches rest on decades of scientific research, advanced technologies, as well as community engaged advocacy work leading to contemporary regulatory policies. The colloquium will explore how current approaches and policies might evolve in light of the recent contributions of artists, architects, curators, climate scientists and technologists.
The 2023 Fitch Colloquium is organized by Jorge Otero-Pailos, Professor and Director of the Historic Preservation Program, GSAPP, Columbia University.
