Atmospheric Encounters at SOLU, Helsinki

Atmospheric Encounters brought the long-running High Altitude Bioprospecting (HAB) project to SOLU Space in Helsinki from 8 October to 20 November 2021. Developed by a collaborative group of artists, scientists, engineers, and researchers, the exhibition focused on microbial life in the atmosphere and on the unstable line between invisible coexistence and perceived threat in the wake of the pandemic.

The exhibition drew together new works shaped by HAB’s exploration of extreme environments, especially the stratosphere, and by the team’s earlier involvement in Bioart Society’s 2019 Field_Notes - The Heavens residency. Alex May’s contribution sat within that broader ecology of research and making, extending his interest in digital media as a way to think through capture, translation, and partial knowledge. In relation to his wider practice, the show placed those concerns into a distinctly atmospheric and collaborative setting, where art, science, and environmental sensing were inseparable.

The exhibition was co-produced by Birmingham Open Media and supported by the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland. The HAB team for this presentation comprised Till Bovermann, Anna Dumitriu, Melissa Grant, Hannah Imlach, Alex May, Oliver de Peyer, Heidi Pietarinen, Noora Sandgren, Paul Shepherd, and Anne Yoncha.