On the Practice and Politics of Atmospheric Modification
October 14–November 23, 2026
If the atmosphere is a commons, who has the right to change the weather?
The desire to make weather is far older than the science that now claims to control it. Before it became a technical problem, weather-making was a ritualistic and cosmological endeavor: rain dances and rogation processions, church bells rung against approaching hailstorms, rockets fired into thunderclouds. Although today it is easy to dismiss this genealogy as mere superstition, weather-making has always been a claim about the relation between human societies and their skies—about who may address the atmosphere, through which mediations, and on whose behalf.
In its new edition, TBA21–Academy’s para-academic program UNI investigates how the atmosphere is being reshaped—technically, politically, and culturally. Through seminar sessions and working groups, this platform for collective learning and experimentation is designed to create space to investigate the blind spots and less-visible territories that conventional academic and cultural frameworks often leave unaddressed. In Weather Commons, UNI’s fall 2026 module co-curated by FAST (Eva Franch i Gilabert and José Luis de Vicente) and TBA21–Academy (Eduardo Castillo-Vinuesa and Aleksandra Czerniak), the program delves into the practices and politics of changing the weather.
Across five Seminar Sessions and four design blocks developed through a collaborative Working Group, Weather Commons brings together artists, historians, scientists, designers, architects, policy experts, and community actors to explore the atmosphere as a shared but unevenly governed space. Participants will explore weather-making’s genealogies and mythologies with Sarah Strauss; warfare and weather imperialism with Ala Roushan, Charles Stankievech, and Karolina Sobecka; the infrastructures and politics of atmospheric observation with Lucia Rebolino and Luiza Crosman; ways of territorial and planetary scale design with Elise Hunchuck, Marco Ferrari, and Design Earth; the limits of—and alternatives to—existing atmospheric governance frameworks with Manon Simon; and how data and simulations turn weather into a field of operations with Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Boone Mercado, who lead the collaborative Working Group.
From rainmaking rituals, anti-hail infrastructures, and cloud seeding to weather militarization, atmospheric simulation, AI forecasting, and geoengineering, the semester explores how societies have imagined, manipulated, governed, and contested the weather not as an immutable force, but as a field of intervention, power, and possibility.
Find more information and the full open call here.
How to participate
There are two ways to engage during this term: register for the Seminar Sessions and/or apply for the Working Group.
Seminar Sessions
Open to all, the Seminar Sessions run weekly from October 14 to November 10. Registration costs EUR 150. Scholarships are available (see requirements in the application form). Each 90-minute session combines presentations and conversations with guest speakers, followed by collective discussion with the group. Register to attend the Seminar Sessions
Working Group
Conceived as a temporary research laboratory led by researchers and architects Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Boone Mercado, the Working Group offers participants the opportunity to exchange tools, methodologies, and forms of expertise while developing a shared investigation into the technologies, contested claims, and political imaginaries surrounding weather modification. Participation in the working group is fully funded; if selected, attendance at the Seminar Session is mandatory and free of charge. Apply to participate in the Working Group
Program
Seminar Sessions
All sessions take place from 6–7:30pm CET.
Session 1—October 14, 2026
Genealogies and Mythologies of Weather Modification
With Sarah Strauss.
Moderated by Eva Franch i Gilabert (FAST).
Session 2—October 21, 2026
Warm Wars and Weather Imperialism
With Karolina Sobecka, Ala Roushan, and Charles Stankievech.
Moderated by Aleksandra Czerniak (TBA21–Academy).
Session 3—October 26, 2026
Scopic Regimes of Weather
With Lucia Rebolino and Luiza Crosman.
Moderated by Eduardo Castillo Vinuesa (TBA21–Academy).
Session 4—November 3, 2026
Remaking the Sky
With Design Earth, Elise Hunchuck and Marco Ferrari.
Moderated by Jose Luis de Vicente (FAST).
Session 5—November 10, 2026
Atmospheric Governance
With Manon Simon, followed by a discussion with the curatorial team and special guest.
Working group
Four weekly sessions on Mondays from November 2 to November 23, 2026, 6–8:30pm CET.
About UNI
UNI is TBA21–Academy’s para-academic program for collective learning, knowledge production, and experimentation at the intersection of art, science, technology, and society. Conceived as a platform to explore the complexities of contemporary worlds and their ecologies, it creates space to investigate the blind spots, uncomfortable questions, and less visible territories that conventional academic and cultural frameworks often leave unaddressed. By bringing different forms of knowledge and practice into dialogue, UNI seeks to develop the pedagogies, shared languages, methods, and tools required to engage with some of these pressing yet overlooked topics.
