A new audio experience that probes the connection between the environment, language, sound and silence, marking a unique collaboration between Artangel and Senate House Library.
A Thousand Words for Weather takes place across three floors of London’s most iconic library as a sonic installation born out of a collaboration between writer Jessica J. Lee and seven other London-based poets of different mother-tongues.
Each poet chose and defined ten words for the weather in Arabic, Bengali, English, German, French, Mandarin, Polish, Spanish, Turkish, or Urdu. They then went on to translate one another's chosen weather words or phrases, contributing to a unique multilingual weather ‘dictionary’ that seeks to generate a shared language describing our collective experience of climate and the changing environment while exploring the nuance of meaning in translating and describing our multilingual realities.
These words form a sound piece created by sound artist Claudia Molitor and integrated with a bespoke playback system designed by software architect Peter Chilvers that inputs data from the Met Office, enabling the sound to be altered depending on the weather outside.
Alongside the audio installations, a new exhibition spotlighting historical items chosen from Senate House Library’s collections will offer a glimpse into different perceptions, recordings, and observations regarding the weather over the past 500 years.
From 22 June 2022 until 25 March 2023.
Visitors will be able to interact with a series of listening posts installed throughout the library, with all admissions taking place during term-time opening hours. You can book a day pass in advance which covers the cost of entry into the library.
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