Imminence
05 Dec 2019 - 10 Jan 2020
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An immersive installation highlighting the impact of human-led climate change on our planet
Commissioned by Bloomberg Philanthropies for the Bloomberg Arcade in the City of London.
Created by NOVAK in collaboration with Ed Carter and Hazel Dunn.
This immersive installation illuminated the full length of Bloomberg Arcade in the City of London with shape-shifting projections highlighting the impact of human-led climate change on our planet
As world leaders meet in Madrid for the COP25 climate change conference, the light and sound installation will invite the public to experience and reflect on animated scenes depicting the consequences of climate change as they unfold beneath their feet. Issues captured in the vibrant projected landscape and accompanying soundscape will range from deforestation and bee extinction, to coral bleaching and global warming.
Developed in collaboration with textile artist Hazel Dunn, NOVAK’s work draws on the tradition of textile design as a medium for storytelling, playing with geometric patterns, bold colour and texture. In Imminence, the striking juxtaposition between vibrant aesthetic and sombre subject matter encourages people to look twice and consider the reality of the climate emergency.
50 metres
Length of projection
1880 to the present day
Climate data used
7 metres
Hight of Projection towers
Artists
NOVAK
NOVAK are an award-winning creative studio based in Newcastle upon Tyne, specialising in motion design and immersive experiences. Their spectacular large-scale projection mapping works are rooted in the historical narratives of the sites they transform. They also create stunning 2D and 3D motion design for television, web broadcast and celebrated musicians. NOVAK have created works including 195 Piccadilly (2016), a projection using famous faces from the BAFTA archives for Lumiere London and Avenue (2018), a 65m projection for Northern Lights, Hull.
Hazel Dunn
Hazel Dunn is a designer who specialises in illustration, printmaking and textile design. Based in Glasgow, she works between these specialisms on commissions that range across visual identity creation, the moving image, fashion and interior textiles and narrative projects.
Ed Carter
Ed Carter is a music composer and producer. He devises and creates interdisciplinary projects that are context-specific, with a focus on sound, collaboration, process and technology. He takes patterns, associations, rhythms and chronology, and uses these to form the structures of new site-specific projects.
Bloomberg Philanthropies-supported public artworks
Imminence was one of a series of Bloomberg Philanthropies-supported public artworks aiming to inspire climate action in cities around the world. Previous works in London have included Ackroyd & Harvey’s Beuys’ Acorns (July 2019) and Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch (December 2019).
Listen to the Imminence soundscape
Composed by Ed Carter. Original score performed by Ed Cross (violin), Josephine Montgomery (violin), Chrissie Slater (viola) and Ele Leckie (cello).
An original, synchronised soundtrack produced by composer Ed Carter accompanies the artwork as it runs in a continuous sequence to create a sense of constant motion and urgency. The score draws on climate and environmental data from 1880 to the present day, combined with recordings from the natural world.
Passers-by interacting with Imminence at Bloomberg Arcade in the City of London, December 2019. Photo by Matt Crossick.
Bloomberg Philanthropies believes in the transformative power of public art and its ability to inspire and engage communities.
Bloomberg Arcade
Storytelling
Imminence draws on the tradition of textile design as a medium for storytelling, playing with geometric patterns, bold colour and texture. The striking juxtaposition between vibrant aesthetic and sombre subject matter encouraged passers-by to stop and consider the reality of the climate emergency.
To create soundscape, data was sourced from 1880 to the present day covering changes in arctic sea ice, global temperature, sea level, seasonal monthly temperature, global forest cover, CO2 emissions, and the decline in UK pollinating insects. This data was used to create each element of a central chronological score, the first half of which sonifies the observed changes from 1880 to 2019, with the second half acting as a mirror image of the first – representing the need to act now in order to reverse current environmental trends.
Image Gallery
Imminence at Bloomberg Arcade, London, 2019. Photo by Matt Crossick.
"Art offers us another language that can reach into people’s consciousness with fresh urgency."
