Breathing Planet: Wind Data jan 2020 - feb 2020

Breathing Planet: Atmospheric Wind Data: 2020 01 28. 22:00 GMT – 2020 02 09. 21:00 GMT is a portrait of breath on a global scale. The immersive installation combines the science of resonant breathing with NASA’s GEOS atmospheric data, connecting the sensation of breathing on an individual level with breath at a global scale.

Immersive Horizon – Breathing Planet, Wind Data, Jan 2020 – Feb 2020, located at Thermen & Badewelt Sinsheim.
Commissioned by Thermengruppe Josef Wund.
Architecture, Interior design and planning by atelier 522.

This is our second commission from Thermengruppe Josef Wund, building on the success of Forest Bathing: Lupuna as part of the Immersive Horizon series, an initiative offering a new experiential opportunity in the wellness space.

Artist statement

In past projects, we traced breath as a stream flowing through people to plants (We Live in an Ocean of Air) and from plants to people (Evolver). Breathing Planet is part of a new series of artworks that continues this exploration, shifting the focus to breath on a planetary scale.

The work asks audiences to consider the atmosphere as the co-creation of all breathing beings, an invisible current that streams through forests, across oceans, between mouths and leaves, linking the smallest microbe to the tallest mountain.

This perspective shift blurs the boundaries between countries, between inside and outside, between self and other. To breathe is to participate, to enter the stream of life’s constant exchange, to dissolve, moment by moment, the illusion of separateness.

Participants are invited to step into a mirrored tunnel, a half-cylinder of polished steel designed to echo the reflective qualities of water. At the far end, an LED wall unfolds a visual meditation that ripples through infinite reflections, while the mirrored floor beneath amplifies the sensation of weightlessness, transforming the space into a seamless, luminous tube.

Participants take a seat within this environment, and are guided to breathe in with the day and out with the night. The cycle follows a gentle 5-5 rhythm – a form of resonant breathing scientifically shown to synchronise the body’s internal rhythms, cultivating calm, focus, and physiological coherence.

“Breathing is a continuous oscillation between exhaling and inhaling — in one moment we give ourselves to the world, and in the next we draw the world into us.”
– David Abram

Within the tube, the audience witnesses Earth slowly rotating in space, a perspective known to evoke the ‘overview effect’, a transformative cognitive shift reported by astronauts when viewing our planet from orbit. This perspective shift reveals how breath dissolves boundaries: between inner and outer worlds, between self and other. Through this lens, the illusion of separation falls away, and the shared fabric of existence comes into view.

Set to the guided meditation, the artwork invites participants to breathe in with the day and out with the night. This cycle unfolds in a form of resonant breathing, a scientifically supported technique that slows breathing to 5-6 breaths per minute, shown to align the body’s internal rhythms, fostering calm, focus, and physiological coherence.

Breathing Planet is powered by a real atmospheric dataset from NASA, spanning January to February 2020, capturing a month in the life of Earth’s atmosphere.

We designed a 10-minute mindful breathwork practice that combines the science of resonant breathing with a planetary view of the atmosphere visualised through NASA’s GEOS data. The Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS), a high-resolution reanalysis model driven by NASA supercomputers, with a resolution over 100 times finer than a typical weather forecast model. The model includes instruments like MODIS on the Terra satellite and VIIRS on Suomi-NPP, which track everything from cloud cover to aerosols and temperature gradients.

The installation was conceived to evoke the sensation of floating in space.

In collaboration with the project’s architects from Atelier522, a series of material experiments with mirrors and metallic surfaces led to the development of a tunnel-like structure: a custom-built half cylinder of mirrored stainless steel designed to mimic the reflective qualities of water. At its far end, an 8K LED wall projects dynamic imagery that ripples through infinite reflection.

Sound designer and composer Carolyn Downing created a hypnotic soundscape recorded with sound artist Kate Fleur Young. Using a range of specialist microphones, including the Rode NT SF-1 Ambisonic & the Neumann KU100 Binaural Head, we captured the spatial orbits of sound. The composition was crafted to be experienced only within the installation. Layers of voice and resonance move fluidly around the listener, immersing them in an enveloping field of sound that evokes both calm and weightlessness.

By aligning with cutting-edge research, the initiative aims to create an intentional space that significantly improves mental and physical wellbeing through the experience of art.

Breath is often thought of as private, yet Breathing Planet reveals the act as something greater, inviting participants into an embodied sense of belonging with the living world. 

‘The atmosphere of this planet is not just a bunch of gases held to Earth by Earth’s gravity. No! Rather, the atmosphere is actually a living organ of the planet, a remarkable membrane quietly generated by all of us – the animals, the plants and the microorganisms – ceaselessly exchanging our breath with one another.’ – David Abram

David Abrams writing is a constant inspiration, please take a moment for a deep dive, preferably under a tree: https://www.davidabram.org/essays

Credits

Immersive Horizon – Breathing Planet, Wind Data, Jan 2020 – Feb 2020, located at Thermen & Badewelt Sinsheim 

Commissioned by Thermengruppe Josef Wund
Architecture, Interior design and planning by atelier 522

An Artwork by Marshmallow Laser Feast
Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin, Robin McNicholas

Executive Producers: Mike Jones, Carolina Vallejo, Eleanor (Nell) Whitley
Producer: Anya Tye & Martin Jowers
Technical VFX Artists: Lewis Saunders, Nicolas Le Dren
Composer & Sound Designer: Carolyn Downing
Musician: Kate Fleur Young
Communications & Content Manager: Louise Deschamps
Audio consultant: Simon Hendry
Technical Studio Assistant: Ieva Vaitiekunaite
Production Assistant: Alex McRobbie
Sound Artist: Kate Fleur Young