The Breath Eaters (multi-channel) by Marina Zurkow, James Schmitz

The Breath Eaters (multi-channel)2022/2023

Three-channel custom software (color, silent)Dimensions variableEdition of 1, 1 AP

The Breath Eaters is an animated, custom software work by Marina Zurkow and James Schmitz that visualizes carbon (PM 2.5) pollutants produced by wildfire and fossil fuel plant emissions. Inspired by a Midjourney image of a world map and presented as a live, generative composition, the work demonstrates how pollution is carried into the high atmosphere and across the globe on currents of wind. The Breath Eaters broadcasts real-time data from NASA’s fire detection systems, GEM's (Global Energy Monitor) fossil fuel and biomass power plant database, and NOAA’s global forecast system. Zurkow and Schmitz expand on the notion of visualizing global emissions, writing “If carbon has been extracted and liberated to roam the globe on the winds, why is the world of beings (human, plant, animal) constrained by national boundaries, walled in and walled out? It is our hope that a near-live data stream of pollution’s transnationalism will give rise to empathy in viewers—this map can look very different with planetary action.” As the globe turns within the gallery, visitors witness an immediate impression of global carbon pollution.

The Breath Eaters (multi-channel) by Marina Zurkow and James Schmitz, 2022/2023