What is it?
This artwork uses a temperature display—four digits, a degree symbol, and a few decimal points—to tell you a story from an imagined future in which our planetary climate has collapsed.
The display is embedded in a small birch branch, anchored with a highly polished brass foot. A small warm LED illuminates the screen. The story takes about six minutes to read, and loops continuously.
Because of the nature of the screen, which was designed only to show four-digit temperature numbers, the available letters and words are quite limited. Some letter forms can be a little difficult to discern on first look.
An increase of 1.5°C temperatures over pre-industrial levels (measured over a decade) is widely considered to be a climate tipping point, past which extreme weather (such as droughts and heatwaves) becomes much more likely. Although many countries agreed to reduce carbon emissions to keep these temperatures from rising further, progress towards this goal remains unclear. We are currently around 1.24–1.28°C.
Its brass foot is an outline of its shadow, echoing many precious metals extracted from our planet.
Full story
A
NAP
ON
AN
OILY
BED
AIR
AND
GAS
OUR
CUES
A
RAY
OF
FIRE
IN
OUR
EYES
LUNG
FULL
AN
ASHY
GALE
NO
RUBE
NAY
OUR
IDEA
A
RIPE
PLAN
AN
EASY
ARC
SNAP
A
REIN
BURN
COAL
PASS
GOAL
BRR
OUR
SUNS
DID
SEE
US.
SO
AIRY
AND
COY
AS
BLUE
LIPS
HUNG
OPEN
A
DAY
OF
NO
SEA
ICE.
A
HILL
OF
SEA
A
RUSH
A
GASP
HARD
YEAR.
PRY
OPEN
OUR
LONG
GONE
JAR
OF
COLD
JOY
SO
HIGH
LESS
DRY
SEA
LANE
PASS
POLE
GO
DIG
ORE
IN
OUR
HOLE
YEAH
JOBS
DONE
GO
GO
ON
GOON
YOU
NEED
A
RUSH
ALL
GAS
LANE
PASS
LINE
A
PIPE
SCAN
OUR
RIGS
SAND
LAPS
IN
LAND
GO
FLEE
ASEA
SEE
HER
A
CANE
AN
EYE
ONCE
OUR
LAND
ASEA
AN
ISLE
AN
ERA
DEEP
AGO
LAPS
UP
GO
