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The installation is a waveform sculpture projected on the surface of water by sonic vibration. As a commentary on the process of climate change, the wave patterns are derived from meteorological data acquired during extreme storms of recent years in Europe. The combination of three materials: air, water and sound simulates a chaotic ecosystem where recorded wind intensity and direction patterns are transferred by waves of sound.

During the recent years I have lived in a city by the Northern See. In the autumn and winter, few times a year, strong storms occur. A stream of air particles - wind - rushes and swirls with incredible speed and power, fluctuating in unpredictable force and intensity patterns. It caries dark clouds and forces waves to wash the sea out of it’s coasts, hits upon buildings and produces a terrifying acoustic landscape.

Climate is described as a chaotic system which can be documented using non-linear dynamics and strange attractors; yet no computing device, however capable, has so far been able to predict and interpret long-term weather conditions. Storms and winds have grown stronger over the past years, both in Latvia and elsewhere in the world, indicating climate change. Different indicators show that the world’s climate is changing – the melting of Arctic ice, the positive North Atlantic Oscillation index of the past decades, and other signs show a dynamic process of change, conventionally called global warming or the greenhouse effect. One of the more noticeable manifestations of change is the increasing number and scale of natural disasters and storms that wreak devastation all over the world every year. In January 2005 the inhabitants of Latvia were also caught unprepared by Hurricane Ervin, a storm of unseen strength, which toppled trees, downed power lines and changed the coastline of the Gulf of Riga.

In nature, wind is generated by the contrast in air pressure between adjoining atmospheric areas. A sharp contrast creates strong winds that grow into storms. The changing intensity of wind currents suggests a similarity to sound waves (sound is a change in air pressure). A recorded wind waveform is a microscopic component indicative of an entire global ecosystem in which all events are connected through interaction and feedback relationships. As a part of a non-linear dynamic system, wind waveform depicts chaotic, but not random or predictable qualities.

“Recorded Altitudes” is an attempt to capture experience of a city form an unusual perspective: hundreds of meters above the ground. The first of the series took place in Riga, May 2007. The images and sounds collected during this journey will be presented at the Urbanologic exhibition organized by LCCA in Andrejsala. The exhibition is open for public for the a whole month between 31/05/2007 and 01/07/2007. Take a look at the project’s online documentation and some photos of the process! Next of the project series will be carried out in the city of Rotterdam and elsewhere around the world. Stay tuned!

“Although urban environment produces a rich variety of noisy artifacts of different origins, the propagation of the sound on the horizontal plane is restricted by the shapes of architectural structures. The sounds mostly spread out through the grid structure of the streets and are never heard altogether, as in open field.

As there are no barriers on the vertical, “Recorded altitudes” attempts to elevate the listening position high above the street level. Eventually, there are no objects blocking the radiation of sound and sensitive microphones register the acoustic panorama of the city in its totality.

To capture the rare listening experience, unmanned meteorological balloons that are used to serve in atmospheric explorations are equipped with recorders and sent out to float over the city skyline.

After the journey, they return back to earth and expose the contents of their “black boxes”: recordings of sounds and images.”

Voldemars Johansons (2007)