Alchemy of Knowledge

A screen-based video following a speculative device that rises into the atmosphere to gather, process, and return fragments of airborne information.

Still from Alchemy of Knowledge showing a red weather balloon-like form and suspended device against a pale atmosphere.

Alchemy of Knowledge is a video work that follows a speculative device from the tundra of Kilpisjarvi in Finland into the upper atmosphere and back again. Suspended beneath a weather balloon, the unit captures and processes fragments of airborne information, turning scientific instrumentation into a narrative of extraction, transformation, and uncertain return. The work moves between filmed landscape, imagined machinery, and digital simulation to create a journey that feels at once exploratory and fragile.

Capture is never neutral in the work. What comes back from the atmosphere is shaped by distance, mediation, and the conditions of retrieval, so knowledge appears as something partial and precarious rather than secured. That emphasis on translation and uncertain return keeps the piece close to May’s wider practice around memory, storage, and technological image-making.

Additional notes

  • Commissioned by Birmingham Open Media for Atmospheric Encounters, shown from 19 May to 28 August 2021.
  • Developed in relation to the High Altitude Bioprospecting project.
  • Location filming in Kilpisjarvi, Finland by the HAB team; all other filming by Alex May.
  • CGI and visual compositing created in Blender.
  • Soundtrack by Alex May using attributed samples from freesound.org.
  • Video documentation: YouTube

Talks, exhibitions, and updates connected to this work.

  • Atmospheric Encounters at SOLU, Helsinki

    Atmospheric Encounters brought the High Altitude Bioprospecting project to SOLU in Helsinki, including Alex May's contribution within a wider collaborative exhibition on airborne microbial life.

  • Atmospheric Encounters at Birmingham Open Media

    Atmospheric Encounters brought the High Altitude Bioprospecting project back to Birmingham Open Media, including Alex May's Alchemy of Knowledge within a wider exhibition on airborne microbial life.