2024, artificial atmospheric phenomena
with Bruce Yoder
custom LEP lights (Laser Excited Phosphor), custom diffraction optics, haze, MDF wood, PMMA mirrors, Eurotruss, rotating turntables, aluminum extrusions, multi-channel audio
option for hybrid installation-performance
_Pitch
The installation recreates naturally occurring optical atmospheric phenomena commonly referred to as rainbows by artificial means. It raises different questions on how we interact with our environment and explores the inherently human desire to imitate as well as our delusion to eventually control nature.
_Operating principle
The installation uses custom LEP light sources (Laser Excited Phosphor), diffraction lenses and rotating mirrors to create slowly moving artificial rainbow phenomena. A multichannel sound loop emphasizes this ever-changing landscape with a generative audio spatialization.
_Artistic statement
Inspired by the optical phenomena observed in our atmosphere, like rainbows, halos and solar coronae, the piece attempts to extrapolate these astonishing natural wonders into tangible synthetic phenomena.
Using multiple highly-collimated light sources and specialized optics, the transdisciplinary collaboration of artist Lukas Truniger and scientist Bruce Yoder create synthetic rainbows that move and transform slowly in the exhibition space. Inspired by the coupled motions of our solar system, it uses periodic rotations of both sound and light to produce an ever evolving environment. The piece plays with the perception of the visitors who navigate the room, contemplating each rainbow from different positions. As is the case for their natural analogs, the synthetic optical phenomena are dependent on the observer’s position. The forms and dependencies differ from those found in nature, thus raising fundamental questions about our shared conceptions of reality. The installation explores how we interact with our environment and exposes the intrinsic human desire to imitate, as well as to exert control over nature.
Weather control has historically been a crucial issue of military and geopolitical concern. While other atmospheric phenomena such as clouds feature a highly geostrategic interest in terms of access to water and cooling, rainbows are phenomena of pure aesthetic and poetic interest.
Truniger and Yoder reflect on this type of engineering and appropriate its techniques, while disassociating it from the motives of power. The installation highlights ideas of climate engineering, geoengineering and weather control, reusing these approaches for an artistic experience. The work speculates on how these phenomena might appear in another world or in a future where atmospheric conditions are altered by far-future climate change – for example: how would the rainbow of an aging and cooling sun look?
_Exhibitions
11/2025 Rote Fabrik – Zürich (CH), exhibition & performance
09/2025 Lost Art Festival – Berlin (DE), exhibition
04/2025 ADAF Athens Digital Arts Festival – (GR), exhibition
12/2024 LABoral Centro de Arte – Gijón (ES), exhibition & performance
_Project credits
<> Concept & realization: Lukas Truniger & Bruce Yoder
_Support
+ LABoral Centro de Arte
+ EMAP European Media Art Platform
+ Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council
+ Ernst Göhner Stiftung
+ Stiftung Anne-Marie Schindler
+ Cassinelli Vogel Stiftung
Implausible Rainbows has been developed as part of a research and production residency at LABoral Centro de Arte within the European programme EMAP European Media Art Platform.
It has received public funding from Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, as well as support from the foundations Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Stiftung Anne-Marie Schindler and Cassinelli Vogel Stiftung.
