index of accelerating winds (2025)
Photographic series featuring data visualizations of winter storm wind recordings captured from the masts of ships moored in Hamilton Harbour (Ontario). The work was motivated by a keynote address delivered by Oren Lyons to the 1996 Bioneers Conference. The presentation was entitled “Listening to Natural Law” and it outlines Haudenosaunee prophesies that speak of two systems (one environmental, the other social) that will warn humanity of serious - perhaps irreversible - deterioration of the environment:
We were told that the winds would accelerate and continue to accelerate. When you see that the acceleration of the winds are growing, then you are in dangerous times. (Chief Oren Lyons)
One of the underlying imperatives in the work gestures toward the idea that, although science is an important framework through which we might address what Lyons calls “dangerous times”, a diverse array of stakeholders needs to work together in order to find solutions. Data and scientific method are important tools in the fight against climate change, but less-abstract, local, embodied, phenomenological perspectives are equally vital. Dimensions: 40x40 inches (Archival inkjet prints on Canson Infinity Rag paper).
Index of Accelerating Winds (Full Images)
Index of Accelerating Winds (Close-Up Details)
