The Aerocene Community
“Aerocene is a project about friendship, about the relationship between air, universe, humans, sun, animals, plants, planets. It is a project showing how shared enthusiasm becomes the common ground to shared dreams. Where time becomes different, where energy and inspiration are endless resources. I can only hope that this family will grow even bigger. ”
Aerocene is an open project devoted to interdisciplinary artistic endeavours that seek to devise, experiment and distribute new modes of creativity and knowledge that reactivate the common imaginary towards post-fossil fuel ways of co-inhabiting the Earth, aiming to achieve an ethical collaboration with the atmosphere and the environment. Its activities manifest in the testing and dissemination of lighter-than-air sculptures that become buoyant only by the heat of the Sun and infrared radiation from the surface of Earth. They float without using solar panels and batteries, and without helium, hydrogen and other rare gases: inflated only by air, lifted only by the sun, carried only by the wind. Aerocene communicates a message of simplicity in a world of tumultuous geopolitical relations, reminding us that the air belongs to everyone and should not depend on any type of sovereignty: free from borders, free from fossil fuels.
We are very honoured to work with many brilliant people around the world.
Aerocene is comprised of a dedicated and diverse global community of artists, geographers, philosophers, thinkers, speculative scientists, explorers, balloonists, technologists, and dreamers. The Aerocene project’s primary collaborators and supporters are the Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), CNES (French National Space Agency), CCK Argentina, Public Lab, The Goethe Institute, Radioamateur, Freifunk, and IAK architecture-related Art Institute at Technische Universität Braunschweig, TBA21, among others. Anyone is invited to share, collaborate, and perform actions in the communal creation and development of the new Aerocene age.
Aerocene supports environmental justice movements and initiatives around the world. The Foundation maintains the rights on the use of Aerocene’s name and tools for activations not meeting its ethics and standards and to all for profit organizations.
In the last years many people have contributed in several ways to the project
For their highly inspiring and thoughtful contributions: Boris Groys, Bronislaw Szerszynski, Derek McCormack, Kiel Moe, Nicholas Shapiro, Oliver Morton, Olivier Michelon, Pierre Chabard, Sanford Kwinter, Sasha Engelmann and Jol Thomson, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Centre for Art, Science and Technology – CAST and Leila Wheatley Kinney, and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science Department – EAPS, Ludovica Illari, Glenn Flierl and Bill McKenna. As well as special mentions to the Aerocene dialogue to Nigel Clark, Etienne Turpin and Juan Enriquez.
For their active roles initiating and developing aerosolar activities Alice Lamperti, Gwilym Faulkner, Erik Vogler, Tomás Saraceno, Camilla Berggren Lundell, Sven Steudte, Daniel Schultz, Joaquin Ezcurra, Hannah Lee Turner, Lisa Lurati, Ignas Petronis, Adrian Krell and Anna Guðný Jónsdóttir Þór.
Special thanks for the development of the Aerocene digital tools including the website; Ali Anwar III, Irin Siriwattanagul and Vasily Sitnikov, and the Float Predictor; trajectories calculation by MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (Lodovica Illari, Glenn Flierl, Bill McKenna), design and coding by Studio Folder (Marco Ferrari, Elisa Pasqual, Luca Ferrario, Iacopo Leardini) + Angelo Semeraro
For everyone involved with Villa Inflamable project in Argentina: Débora Swistun, Claudia Espínola, Rocío Luque, Ezequiel Viggiano, Gustavo Cañaveral, Maximiliano Laina, Gabriela Sorbi, Eduardo Marengo, Natalia Buceta, Jimena Rodriguez Berisso, Margarita Ezcurra, Veronica Fiorito and the organisations Sembrando Juntos Community Center, ACIJ and Blog Proyecto Riachuelo. In addition the residents of Inflamable, Universidad 3 de Febrero and the community TV channel Urbana Te Ve.
For their contributions to Aerocene Actions in Argentina during CCK workshops and Salinas Grandes Jujuy trip: Abel Mamani, Agustina de Ganay, Alfio Demestre, Alicia de Arteaga, Ana Lia Laura Palavecino, Daniela Gutierrez, Eduardo Marengo, Erica Bohm, Froilán Colque, Guadalupe Pardo, Guido Ignatti, Guido Poloni, Hernán Soriano, Inés Leyba, Joaquin Ezcurra, Laura Daldin, Laura Nieves, Magdalena Molinari, Mariano Giraud, Martin Bonadeo, Mateo Amaral, Mauricio Corbalan, Mauricio Florentino, Maxi Bellman, Maximiliano Laina, Maximiliano Bellmann, Oliverio Duhalde, Pablo La Padula, Patricia Saragueta, Pio Torroja, Sabrina Martinez Zunni, Sofia Petit de Meurville, Sven Steudte, Yisell Sarasua.
For the sensing devices connected to Aerocene solar sculptures developed for the Aerocene project, thanks to Lighter Than Air GmbH, Nick Shapiro from Public Lab, with additional support from Studio Tomás Saraceno. For the cut-down mechanisms for Aerocene solar sculptures, thanks to Lighter Than Air GmbH, Alexander Bouchner from IAK architecture-related Art Institute at TU Braunschweig, with support from Global Western.
For their assistance in making the Aerocene Gemini Free Flight Launch (27 August 2016) possible Nick Shapiro (Public Lab), Sven Steudte (Radioamateur), Thomas Krahn (Radioamateur), Alexander Bouchner, Cara Cotner, Adrian Krell, Daniel Schulz, Irin Siriwattanagul, and Kotryna Šlapšinskaitė (Studio Tomás Saraceno). As well as to Lars Behrendt, Daniel Dittmer, Ivanna Franke, Luca Girardini, Anna Holzapfel, Eleonora Pedretti, Nathaphon Phantounarakul, Adrian Porikys, Tomasz Stasiak, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.
To the participants of Aerocene Hack 1 at Imperial College Advanced Hackspace (28-30 October 2016), Exhibition Road, London, for their inspired contributions: Larasati, Elinor Merkier, Minwoo Kim, Kristof van der Fluit, Andy, Florian Tiefenbach, Lok Chun, Fan, James Formby, Evelien van Bokhorst, Marco Ghilardi, Rachel Yalisove, Elena Falomo, Ahmed Asiliskender, Yilan Lu. From Imperial College Advanced Hackspace, London, Jing Sheng Pang, Audrey Gaulard, Kitty Liao, Sabine Weiss, and Raj Shah.
For making the human flight in Ljubljana happen with such incredibly uplifting outcome on 25-27 April, 2018; Alice Lamperti (pilot), Sofia Lemos (pilot), Erik Vogler (pilot), Charlotte Jansen (pilot)
Igor Miklocic (pilot), Tomas Saraceno, Gwilym Faulkner, Steef van Lent, Camilla Berggren Lundell, Felix van Boeam, Tom Miklousic, Barbara Bulc, Marco Ferrari, Eva Vasileska, Bostjan Perovsek and Grega Trcek. Special thanks to European Commission for Transport, Art4Action and Balon Klub Zagreb.
To superior workshop engagement during Fab City Summit (11-13 July 2018), Paris, France; Erik Vogler, Sasha Engelmann, Camilla Berggren Lundell, Joaquin Ezcurra, Grace Pappas and Julieta Arancio with special thanks to Francesco Cingolani (Fab City Summit) and Romain Di Vozzo (FAB14)
For the symposium as the first milestone of the solo exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in 2018: Jean de Loisy, Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, Claire Contamine, Myriam Ben Salah, and all the team of Palais de Tokyo (www.palaisdetokyo.com).
Solutions COP21, during United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21, 2015, Paris. Teams of Grand Palais and Artists4Paris Climate, Hopscotch and Public Systeme, and Didier Saulnier. As well as special thanks and appreciations for Laurence Dreyfus, Caroline and Eric Freymond.
For the invaluable involvement and collaborations: L’Observatoire de l’Espace, National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), Jean Marc Charbonnier, Philippe Cocquerez, Arnaud Deramecourt, Jean Evrard, Alain Hauchecorne, Gerard Letrenne.
For the long-term dialogue and exchange: Yasmil Raymond, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Daniel Birnbaum, Molly Nesbit, and Brown University Udo Kittelmann, Marion Ackermann, Ute Meta Bauer, Joseph Grima, Andrea Lissoni, Luca Cerizza, Sara Arrhenius, Agnes Husslein-Arco and Mario Codognato, Marianne Torp, Rutger Wolfson, Elizabeth Thomas and Phyllis Wattis, Jacob Fabricius, Jean-Paul Felley and Olivier Kaeser, Nikola Dietrich, Ellie Buttrose, Florian Matzner, José Roca, Theo Tegelaers, Adrian Notz, Friedrich von Borries, Ralph Rugoff, Anna Tilroe, Gayatri Uppal, Sabrina van der Ley and Markus Richter, Mohammad Kazem, Eva Scharrer and Jonathan Watkins, Pierluigi and Natalina Remotti, Caroline Eggel and Christiane Rekade, Marco Biraghi, Maurizio Bortolotti, Bert Theis, Juan and Patricia Vergez, Anne Strauss, Meredith Malone, Yona Friedman, Nikolaus Hirsch, Peter Weibel, Filippo Garrone, Claudio Veckstein, Ciro Najle, Raqs Media Collective, Sofia Lemos, Barbara Bulc, EU Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc, Blaz Pongracic, Mark Lawrence and Stefan Schaffer from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
For TU-Braunschweig, IAK Institute, where 160 students take the course to become pilots of the Aerocene fleet. For the professors that embrace the teaching and enrich it with the full variety of their practice: Alan Prohm, Bernd Schulz, Ilka Raupach, Ivana Franke, Sina Heffner, Michael Zwingmann, Natalija Miodragovic. And very special thanks to Sasha Engelmann and Jol Thomson for the Becoming Pilot seminar.
Special thanks for their constant and continuous support for the development of Aerocene to Michael Braungart, Matthias Schuler, Walter Munk, Michael Kezirian, Iyad Rahwan, Jonathan Ledgard, Sara Dean, William Shubert, Red Cross Red Crescent and Pablo Suarez, Prof. Bruno Latour.
For the amazing energy, support and trust towards the future, we would like to thank Francesca von Habsburg and Markus Reymann, TBA21 Academy, allies in the planetary care, who laid down the future paths in the Aerocene’s expedition to Solomon Islands, bringing us an opportunity to share and exchange ideas for the sake of the project with our three dear guests: Juan Enriquez, Nicholas Shapiro and Bill McKenna. As well as for Sam Campbell and Barney Broomfield who aided to document this fantastic journey.
From the White Sands World-Record Setting Launch: The sun was so strong that one after the other we started to dive to the stars, we held each other to the earth, with sand bags, ropes and gloves…The access to the space seems open again, this time without rockets and tickets. Endless thanks to the board of White Sands launch: Rob La Frenais, Kerry Doyle, Karla Frausto, Michael Wyatt, Tom, Marija and Igor Miklousic, John Powell, Ewen Chardronnet, Nicola Triscott, Frederik Jacobi, Anthony Langdon, Astrovandalistas, Gravity by its Absence artists’ group, and Rubin Centre for the Visual Arts, as well as for everybody else who took part.
Museo Aero Solar community: Tell Andersson, Saga Asgeirsdottir, Natasa Bandelj, Simo Barbagallo, Hoxha Besart, Benedikte Bjerre, Christoph Blum, Bob Sleighs, Juan Camilo, Maria Giulia Cantaluppi, Renaud Codron, Marc Colombaioni, Rolf Degel, Vivana Deluca, Pablito El-Drito, Janis Elko, Fabrizio, Fani, Mara Ferreri, James Flaten, Gaia Fugazza, Giovanni Giaretta, Simon Gillard, Till Hergenhahn, Andria Hickey, Juan Camillo Jaramillo, Rasmus Johannsen, Theresa Kampmeier, Kim, Daniel Kohl, Oliver Kral, Dominik Mader, Eduardo Ernesto Marengo, Persichina Matteo, Matteo Mascheroni, Natalija Miodragovic, Mohamed Nageh, Mustapha Nageh, Dragusha Njomza, Marco Orlando, Osmani, Sabine Pahl, Eduardo Perez, Alberto Pesavento, Alice Pintus, Cristian Raimondi, Yasmil Raymond, Christiana Rekada, Barrak Reiser, Jacob Remin Sikker, Hannah Rosales, Iuri Rottiers, Hoti Rinor, Tim Rottiers, Matteo Rubbi, Michela Sacchetto, Hugo Santamaria, Lahu Saranda, Manuel Scano, Tean, Saverio Tozzi, Ujjval, Emek Ulusay, Alejandro Uribe, Mauro Vignando, Lionel Wolberger, Alberto Pesavento.
For making the free flight happen on 9th of June 2018, thanks to The Radiosondy Polska Community, particularly Marcin Pindor and Wlodek Tarnowski for a fantastic recovery mission, and to Alice Lamperti, Anna Drewes, Aurelien Calpas, Aysegul Seyhan, Banu Çiçek Tülü, Camilla Berggren, Claudia Melendez, Dario Iannone, Dario J Lagana, Denis Maksimov, Devrim Yasar, Erik Vogler, Esther Schipper, Gwilym Faulkner, Hannah Turner, Ilka Tödt, Joshua Depaiva, Kimberly Bradley, Leopold Schulenburg, Mariia Dubrovska, Martina Pelacchi, Matthias Böttger, Moonsung Cho, Roland Mühlethaler, Roxanne Mackie, Sara Ferrer, Sophie Rzepecky, Sven Steudte, Thomas Heidtmann, Timo Tuominen,Yelta Köm and Zaida Violan.
Rehearsing the first emissions free around-the-world flight on August 4 2019 would not have been possible without the help from Sven Steudte, Thomas Krahn, Zaida Violan, Tomás Saraceno, Yoon, Adam, Fiorella, Joaquín Ezcurra, Sofia Lemos, Camilla Berggren Lundell, Alice Lamperti, Erik Vogler, Gwilym Faulkner, Anna Guðný Jónsdóttir Þór, Aysegul Seyhan, Dario J. Laganá, Saverio Cantoni, Marina Hoxter and Roxanne Mackie.
As well the gratitude expressed to Paola Antonelli, Willow Brugh, Chris McKay, Bollinger + Grohmann Ingenieure, Manfred Hermann, Katherine Higgins, Juan Herreros, Alexander Bormann, Andreas Kunze, Dominic Michaelis, Laurent Besset, Caroline Boettner, Martin Saraceno, Silke Neumann, Carlo Rizzo, Maximilian Laina for their engagement and invaluable advice.
For creating signatures in the air manifesting a future free from fossil fuels: 350org Victoire Guillonneau, Noura Elouardi, Alejandra Alonso de Noriega, Cara Cotner, Pedro Portellano, Laura Francia, Cesare Silvi, Renae Shadler, Maria Nurmela, Cedric Carlier, Christine Shaw, Alison Cooley, Students at Royal Holloway GeoHumanities 2018 and at Columbia University Engineering Class of 2019, Martino Margheri, Riccardo Lami, Arturo Galansino.
For their restless helps: Andersen’s Contemporary, Esther Schipper, Pinksummer, Ruth Benzacar, Tanya Bonakdar, with the special thanks to Claus Andersen and Christian Just Linde.
Last but not least we would like to thank Alejandra Alonso de Noriega, Cara Cotner, Desirée Valdes, Pedro Portellano, Pio Torroja and Mauricio Corbalan, Don McCasland, Maximiliano Bellmann, Hannah Zindel, Marie Thébaud Sorger, Sam Hertz, Laura Francia, Stefania Itolli, Renae Shadler and Maria Nurmela, and Studio Tomás Saraceno: Lars Behrendt, Fabiola Bierhoff, Francesca Boenzi, Saverio Cantoni, Claudia Melendez, Javier Rosenberg, Sonia d’Agrain, Duncan Anderson, Mateo Argerich, Manuela Azcona-Mazure, Scott Barnes, Ally Bisshop, Irina Bogdan, Sascha Boldt, Viola Cafuli, Tathiana Chaves, Connie Chester, Filippo Corato, Carola Dietrich, Joaquin Ezcurra, Andrea Familari, Gwilym Faulkner, Sara Ferrer, Chris Filippini, Luca Girardini, Canice Grant, Samantha Grob, Ricardo Gomes, Charles Gonzalez, Alice Hall, Martin Heller, Marina Höxter, Adam Hudec, Eric Jones, Jennifer Jordan, Georgi Kazlachev, Sarah Kisner, Elisa Kofol, Christos Kollias, Yelta Köm, Nemanja Kordic, Dario Lagana, Rosalie Laurin, Alice Lamperti, Viola Castellano, Tobias Lange, Rosalie Laurin, Davide Luciani, Camilla Lundell, Lisa Lurati, Vicente Macellari, Roxanne Mackie, Thomas McBride, Pepe Menéndez-Conde, Jillian Meyer, Olivia Moore, Roland Muehlethaler, Jörg Niemann, Lea Nikou, Jaime Norambuena, Aurelia Nowak, Tania Patritti, Martina Pelacchi, Marco Pittaluga, Manie Du Plessis, Brendan Power, Diego Puerto, Matthew Raven, Patrick Reddy, Antoine Renard, Michele Rinaldi, Jazmin Scherone, Hans-Martin Schlesier, Aysegul Seyhan, Sebastian Steinboeck, Sven Steudte, Judith Strassenberger, James Sundermann, Ilka Tödt, Hannah-Lee Turner, Deha Uzbas, Desirée Valdes, Zaida Violan, Filippo Vogliazzo, Erik Vogler, Philip Weber, Flora Weil, Beatrice Zaidenberg, and Davide Zucco.
