Stories of the Sky

My art practice probes how soft science fiction provides intervals to contemplate the tension among the relentless advancement of infrastructural technologies, their environmental and psychological repercussions, and the metaphors and culture in weather and environments. In this thesis, I explore such tension with a specialized focus on the sky via a series of artworks that engage with clouds, weather satellites, and human feelings. My experience receiving image signals from the Russian weather satellite Meteor-M2 has led me to understand the pervasive presence of satellites and their silent integration into, and control over, various environments—similar to numerous other contemporary infrastructures. The sky has never been merely a smooth surface but is striated with all kinds of machines, politics, and power dynamics. My thesis can be seen as exploring methods of coping as responses from an individual caught in such an intermingled environment, and as an inquiry into how we perceive things that are distant from us. Referring to soft science fiction approaches, I strategically misuse technologies to prioritize human subjectivity over technological functionality. In moments where the misused technologies cease to function, but to obscure, to resist, to complicate, to affect, I put the current dynamics between the self and technologies into play. Parallel to my artistic practice, I also take inspiration from elemental media studies for their broader theoretical discourse on the interplay between the environment and media. Media historian John Durham Peters argues for a more encompassing definition of media that includes environmental elements, including the sky, challenging the traditional dichotomy between nature and culture and the previous academic emphasis on culture over nature. This perspective allows for the exploration and appreciation of the sky’s cultural, emotional, and historical values which are just as important, if not more so, than any other conventional media, resonating with the intentions behind my artworks. Thus, “media” becomes a term that is semantically richer than it already is and requires a nuanced interpretation embracing all its connotations, and my thesis provides ways to explore this materially. By focusing on the sky as a juncture where nature and culture collide, my thesis advocates for a synthesized view that recognize the multifaceted narratives woven through the sky—stories of technology, of culture, of grand dreams and of small melancholy.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Zhanyi

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Green, Renée

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157349

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/157349