Grayson Cooke doesn’t ignore the clouds - he makes films with them. 

In fact, he believes that with global warming, it is becoming more and more vital that we understand how clouds behave,

Part multimedia artist, part geoscientist, the Southern Cross University (SCU) academic has been using his time in Covid-19 isolation to create unique videos using data from satellite images of the earth.

His latest creation - Himawari - is an art meets science video project capturing the time-lapse movement of water vapour swirling around our planet, set to a soundtrack from local musicians 

“I can’t paint and I couldn’t draw a horse, but I’ve always been a musician and a photographer and what I do now brings those things together in the digital realm,” he said.

Lockdown art

“I’ve spent some of my lockdown time getting my head around accessing and processing the incredible imagery and data that comes off the Himawari weather satellite, run by the Japan Meteorological Agency,” Grayson said. 

“When I’m working with the water vapour data recorded by the satellite – from the geostationary orbit, 35,786km above the Earth – I see we are all one organism under the giant swirling mass of water that makes our planet liveable.”

Grayson took a steep learning curve as he worked out how to work with high resolution data files from satellites.

“It took a lot of time and processing to get visual images out of volumes of data,” he said. “A two minute film can take 15 hours of work.”

Darwin, 2018.

Origins

Grayson is now the course coordinator of the digital media degree at SCU, but his love of photography, music, media and the environment have been around for a long time. 

“I grew up in New Zealand, hiking and on the coast – the scenery is stunning there and it gave me a strong appreciation of the natural world,” he said.

Grayson came to Australia in 2001.

“I’d been living in Montreal and did my PhD there,” he said. “Then I thought it’s time for a new start here in Australia and I ran a small web design firm, then went back to study and got an academic position.

“Over time, I did media production and taught multimedia and film production and developed a profile as a media artist using skills in the classroom.”

Climate change 

Grayson’s obsession with geology and multimedia art went on to combine with his desire to do something about the changes caused by climate change. 

So, he made videos, with a goal to use science to explore our relationship with the earth.

“Over years and through collaborations with others, I learned a lot about geoscience and environmental science– the clouds, rocks and desert environments,” he said.

“I love the wonder and diversity of works and the people on Earth. 

“I’m equally in awe of earth processes – as human beings we’ve done a lot of damage to our planet through technology and industry development.

“Climate change is the biggest issue facing human kind today – and I wanted to address the urgent nature of it as it becomes more present in all of our lives.

Grayson is currently working on a video project which includes interviews with climate change scientists and is designed to make people think about the state of the world. 

“It will be shown on an enormous LED panel display at Adelaide Festival Centre in July – if we are out of lockdown by then.”

Kati Thanda 2018.

Himawari

Grayson said for his latest movie, Himawari, he used Himawari satellite data of electro-magnetic thermal infrared bands showing water in the atmosphere 

The video uses two days’ worth of satellite data from last year, February 3 and 4, from the Geoscience Australia and the Digital Earth Australia platform. The music is by New Zealand sound artist Dugal McKinnon.

The Bureau of Meteorology draws data from Japan’s Himawari satellite for forecasting weather in Australia.

The Himawari video forms part of a new larger project Grayson is developing called Path 99. It will be a full dome planetarium projection at the Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand, in 2021 – and Dugal McKinnon is creating the soundtrack.

“The project uses Landsat and Himawari satellite data to investigate Australia’s cloud layer, using scientific imagery in an artistic context to reflect on the wonder and complexity of Earth processes vital to all life on this planet,” Grayson said.

“Landsat satellites orbit at around 700kms from the Earth and see a swathe of the planet only 185km wide. But weather satellites sit at a geostationary orbit, 35,786km from the surface, and they see around 42% of the Earth’s surface at one time. 

“And because they’re multi-spectral, they record both visual images as well as invisible details such as water vapour and cloud temperature – and when you map the water vapour bands to the red, green and blue channels of a digital image, you get this stunning and constantly unfolding imagery of the Earth.”

Feature film

One of Grayson’s early collaborative projects was the feature film Open Air.

“It was a collaboration with Mullumbimby based painter Emma Walker painter and the music of the Nicks – and it won an award,” Grayson said.

“The film was the beginning of a relationship with Geoscience Australia to find creative ways of using satellite data that adheres to the scientific notion of using data to investigate environmental change - but in artist’s context.

“How artists think and feel about earth and our effect on it is different to scientists’

“I found working with satellite data brought an emotional and sensual response – I’m more interested in how this can make you feel, and how will it affect the viewer?”

If you would like to view any of Grayson’s artworks and movies, visit https://www.graysoncooke.com/