In 1837, the 19th century mathematician, inventor and philosopher Charles Babbage wrote the Ninth Bridgewater Treatise in which he stated that, when we speak, we create ripples in the air.
Babbage viewed the atmosphere as a boundless repository, a library or archive where invisible voices, sounds and spoken words were stored. He even speculated about the potential to resurrect lost voices and reexamine past events and crimes envisioning a future where an advanced computer could calculate molecular movements, enabling the recreation of past voices.
This intriguing and almost romantic concept actually poses many questions and dilemmas about the possibility of devising mechanisms to listen to these echoes because it makes us wonder which voices would be worth hearing and prompts us to consider if we want to live in a society where even the faintest of sounds is eternally remembered. 
Moving from this concept and the dilemmas it generates, Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, the recipient of two BAFTAs for Interactive Art and a creative mind operating at the crossroads of architecture and performance art, came up with a series of installations, part of the "Atmospheric Memory" exhibition, currently on at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia (until 5 November).
Curated by José Luis de Vicente, the exhibition coincides with National Science Week, the Sydney Science Festival (until 20th August), and it is a sort of new version of the eponymous event organized during the Manchester International Festival in 2019.
The event opens with a series of objects from the museum’s collection, including a tinfoil phonograph, an early sound recording and playback device invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, and an aneroid barometer used at Sydney Observatory in the late 1800s for weather forecasting.
There are also prototypes of Victorian marvels, namely a model of Babbage’s mechanical calculator, the Difference Engine No 1, that foreshadowed modern computers and that, designed to be operated also by somebody who didn't know any mathematics, was in theory capable of producing successive values of a polynomial function using the Method of Finite Differences. 
Babbage never completed it and started working on the Analytical Engine; in the end he failed to build the latter as well, but a woman, Ada Lovelace, daughter of Romantic poet George Gordon Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke, provided pioneering intuitions about it and an algorithm for the Analytical Engine to compute Bernoulli numbers (it is considered the first algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer, and Ada has often been cited as the first computer programmer for this reason).
The most intriguing part of the event, though, focuses on the interactive installations, many of them activated by the participants' voices. Works include a speech-recognition fountain (powered by Google’s transcription engine) where spoken words become clouds of text (Cloud Display): speaking into an intercom visitors can see their voices translated into clouds of cold-water vapour. 
Then there is a room (Field Atmosphonia) with over 3,000 different speakers with lights emanating field recordings of 200 species of insects and 300 types of birds; as visitors move they activate the speakers and the sound effects, creating a multi-channel experience that evokes what Babbage had in mind.
Visitors can also sit in booths where their words are transformed into text as they speak or into water ripples (Voice Tank).
Other installations include a voice-controlled robotic light beacon, and the world's first 3D-printed speech bubble (Volute 1).
In the latter a laser tomograph captures exhaled air and replicates it in aluminum. The final sculpture reveals the form of a word and encourages tactile exploration.
But there is an interesting twist in this reproduction: the same word spoken by the same person yields a different shape. The complexity defies predictability and encourages visitors to consider the concept of time and the fact that our present cannot be repeated, which would lead us to the conclusion that Babbage's idea wouldn't be attainable.
There is more to discover in the installation "Last Breath": the late avant-garde accordionist Pauline Oliveros, who passed in 2016, exhaled into a device that allows to circulate her breath between a motorised bellow and a brown paper bag. This bizarre machine is a living memorial of a senior respected artist, but also a way to consider our ephemeral existence symbolised by the fragility of the bag.
One of the most dystopian pieces is the installation that turns one of the museum rooms into a projection chamber. Viewers' silhouettes are projected on walls on text pages, but body movement dissipates the words.
Then the room unveils CCTV footage from over 30 cameras trained on the public with facial recognition, and visitors turn into the subjects of the installation. Through this installation created in collaboration with artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, and inspired by the restrictions Wodiczko experienced during his upbringing in communist Poland, where public gatherings were forbidden, visitors are warned about modern technology and they are remembered that, what started as an entertaining endeavour can turn into a form of enslavement.
If the first 3D-printed speech bubble confirmed that Babbage's dream was unattainable, this one proves the opposite as the images of the visitors, duly recorded by the cameras, are constantly reproduced.
However, the ultimate goal of the event isn't to determine the correctness of Babbage's ideas. Instead, it aims to underscore the importance of the atmosphere and how the increasing accumulation of carbon dioxide serves as an indicator of the detrimental effects of industrialization and the urgent climate crisis.
In a press release Lozano-Hemmer states: "Babbage wanted to rewind the motion of all molecules of air to hear again the voices of long-lost loved ones, vows and promises. Atmospheric Memory, possibly the most ambitious project I have ever undertaken, explores his idea today, when the dream of perfect recollection is one of the defining conditions of our digital life, and the air that we breathe has become a battleground for the future of our planet."
Through the title of the exhibition – "Atmospheric Memory" – Lozano-Hemmer invites us indeed to consider the increases levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels were consistently around 280 parts per million for almost 6,000 years of human civilization; but carbon dioxide measured at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory peaked for 2022 at 421 parts per million.
In the exhibition a clockwork tower, revolving every minute, features a growing CO2 counter, a poignant reminder of the urgent need for action to protect our planet and an invitation to reclaim the atmosphere as a space for our communities, artistic endeavors, and engagement.
To this end the exhibition closes with a space where visitors can take a seat, leaf through books covering a range of subjects, including climate crisis and surveillance, and engage in contemplation and introspection. While art certainly has the power to evoke emotions, it should indeed also serve as a catalyst for action. And this is precisely the message conveyed to the visitors by the diverse interactive installations presented here – to engage in active participation and response.
Image credits for this post
1. Babbage "Difference Engine No 1" calculating engine, designed by Charles Babbage, parts made by Joseph Clements, assembled by Henry Provost Babbage, England, 1822-1879. Powerhouse Collection 96/203/1
2. Punch cards for Jacquard weaving loom, c. 1875-1900. Powerhouse Collection 2010/1/272
3. Edison tinfoil phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison, 1887, made by the London Stereoscopic Company, London, United Kingdom, 1885-1891. Powerhouse Collection H3168
4. Aneroid barometer, made by Short and Mason Ltd, London, England, 1875-1900, used at Sydney Observatory, New South Wales, Australia, 1875-1948. Powerhouse Collection H9970
5. Carbon dioxide meter, wood casing, dial face at centre, metal / wood / plastic / leather, made by Cambridge Instrument Co Ltd, Cambridge / London, England, 1924-1954
6. Respirator, with face mask, canister, container and haversack, anti-gas, metal / glass / canvas / rubber, Willow Ware Australia Pty Ltd / Stokes & Sons, Australia, 1942
7. Camera obscura with components, cedar / mahogany / ivory / metal / glass / textile, maker unknown, France, c. 1800
8. Atmospheric Memory by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Airborne 4 (2013), at MIF19 photo Jason Lock
9. Atmospheric Memory by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Cloud Display 1 memory (2019), at MIF19, copyright Mariana Yåñez 505A6784
10. Atmospheric Memory by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Cloud Display 9 (2019) at UNC2021 photo by Olivier Groulx
11. Atmospheric Memory by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Cloud Display 18 Cascade (2019), at MIF19, copyright Mariana Yåñez 505A6451
12. Atmospheric Memory by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Last Breath (2012), at MIF19, photo by Jason Lock
13. Atmospheric Memory by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Volute 2 (2018), MIF19 copyright Mariana Yáñez
14. Atmospheric Memory by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Recognition (2018), at UNC2021, photo by Olivier Groulx
15. Atmospheric Memory by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Text Stream (2019), at UNC2021, photo by Olivier Groulx
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