A breathtaking interactive art environment where visitors can see, hear and even touch the sounds that travel through the atmosphere, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Atmospheric Memory scours the sky for the voices of our past. Inspired by computing pioneer Charles Babbage’s 180-year-old proposal that the air is a ‘vast library’ holding every word ever spoken, Atmospheric Memory asks: was Babbage right? Can we rewind the air to recreate long-lost voices? And if so, whose would we want to hear?

An array of ‘Atmospheric Machines’ mines the air for turbulence caused by speech, then transform it into trails of vapour, ripples on water, epic 360-degree projections. Staged by Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer in a specially designed projection Chamber, Atmospheric Memory explores the beautiful tumult of the air we breathe – and celebrates the transience of the sounds that fleetingly live within it.

The production premiered at Manchester International Festival in 2019.

For more information about the project visit the Atmospheric Memory microsite.

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Science and Industry Museum, FutureEverything, ELEKTRA / Arsenal Contemporary Art, Montreal and Carolina Performing Arts - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Produced by Manchester International Festival and curated with FutureEverything and Science and Industry Museum.