«Weather» is an online opera on the climate change which consists of exhibition spaces in 360° VR, as well as a video chat and a presentation platform with an interactive 3D animation.
«Weather» is one of the last music pieces of late American composer Elizabeth Swados created with an intention to use music and theatre to increase awareness of the current environmental problems related to the climate change and the human impact on the natural world.
Combining the ambience of the western and global music, the piece covers many real-life events, academic descriptions and mythological narratives to tell the story of destruction and revival of the climate which results in a kaleidoscopic hymn to the powers of nature and a reminder of the fact that we all should reflect on the extreme ecological situations our planet encounters while we still have time.
Today, in accordance with the Swados’ initial vision, Weather has grown to become a multimedia online project comprising an interactive platform of a 3D chat for live performances and events dedicated to the climate change, as well as 11 spaces of 360° virtual reality created to demonstrate the visual and educational context of climate problems discussed in each of 11 pieces of the opera. «Weather» became an integral part of development of new and already available interactive opportunities on the platforms of our technological partners.
The music of the opera was arranged, and the audio and visual records were collected from personal archives of more than 80 singers and musicians from all across the world that stayed isolated in their countries during the pandemic. The city of Spoleto included the «Weather» project in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with a reference to the minimal ecological footprint of the project in comparison to its potential outreach.
The «Weather» project obtained accreditation in the field of sustainable development through the official ISO 20121 certification of the European Environmental Agency. As a result of cooperation of almost two hundred musicians, singers, dancers, actors, clip makers, graphic designers, programmers and various cultural associations located on 6 continents, on January 30, 2021, the «Weather» project was presented in the Internet to the multi-thousand audience from all across the world.
The goal of the «Weather» project is to unite performing arts, climatology and online technologies to draw attention to the issue of human impact on the natural world by generating new contact points between the culture and the surrounding world while encouraging the dialogue between the artists whose works reflect social changes occurring in our world through the art.
The «Weather» project is a way to generate a wider community of followers and associates willing to communicate the significance of the environmental problems to the society. In order to ensure information availability and exchange, the project sets an objective to attract a wide range of artists, activists, experts, researchers, administrators, businessmen, students and individual citizens to development of programs of events held in interactive virtual spaces, thereby reducing the gap between those that strive to get an insider’s perspective and those that possess this knowledge while reducing the ecological footprint typical for international forums. According to the concept, the goal of the project is to get the youth interested in active participation, communication and interaction with teachers, information sources and art objects that have previously been unavailable for them, and to do it for free.
