THERMOPOWER

(v.2, 2024; v.1, 2021)

12:35m, HD video, color, sound

Thermopower explores the biological concept of thermoregulation across mammals and machines. It introduces the American pika (Ochotona princeps), a small mountainous relative of rabbits and indicator species for the climate crisis, as a frame through which to articulate how thermoregulation affects and is affected by human animals, nonhuman animals, and human-designed technologies like internet data centers.

The research-driven film repurposes a steerable, networked research camera called TundraCam, typically used by scientists to study the alpine tundra. Commingling creative, scientific, and technological approaches, it animates a conversation on the role of technology in both the maintenance and loss of livable temperatures.

Supported by:

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts
Redline Contemporary Art Center
Nature, Environment, Science, Technology Studio for the Arts (NEST)

Screenings & Exhibitions:

Go Short International Short Film Festival, Nijmegen NL (2024)
Labocine by Imagine Science Films , Mountain Panorama program (2024)

FEELERS: Towards Reciprocal Sensing, Fulcrum Festival, Los Angeles, CA (2022)
The Other Art Fair, Saatchi, Los Angeles, CA (2021)
Labocine by Imagine Science Films, Winter of the Climate-Haunted Globe program (2020)
Nature Club, Femmebit, Online (2020)
4S Making & Doing, New Orleans, LA (2019)
Multispecies Storytelling, Växjö, Sweden (2019)

Notes:
Thermopower is the result of field and lab research conducted with Ashley Whipple, a biologist studying American pika stress.

_{Documentation photos by Ian Byers Gambel}