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Causal Legacies (2026) is a new multimedia artwork resulting from a year of research as part of the S+T+ARTS EC(H)O residency programme that integrates video, sculpture, sound and performance art. Probing AI through climatic, socio-ecological and posthuman perspectives, the work traces how algorithmic systems mediate shifting weather patterns in Europe and the Global South. It analyses precipitation fluctuations and their associated effects in the Global South, based on qualitative and quantitative data on climatic conditions in Europe and the central Sahel region. Looking at the correlations between environmental problems with social tensions and conflict, the project aims to investigate how attribution – i.e. the identification of cause and effect – can be possible even where data sets are limited or experimental interventions are not feasible. On the basis of Big Geospatial Data, the scientific framework behind this work leans on advanced principles of Quantum Machine Learning and its applications on geospatial research. Looking at how Quantum Machine Learning maps the Earth’s surface, the data used does not draw on commercial platforms such as Google Maps, which are often distorted or compromised in profit-oriented processes. Capturing hundreds of low resolution images of the Earth’s surface produced through the machine learning processes, it became evident that some of the surfaces rendered by the quantum computer look unusual, with a speculative or utopian quality replacing the expected realism. As part of the developmental process, those images were merged with and layered, accompanied by a narrating voice that provides scientific insights in a poetic manner. Framing natural and social instabilities as a speculative interface between human and more-than-human bodies, this project looks at the reactive relationships between different substances that drive climatic change. At its core, Causal Legacies seeks to generate new forms of knowledge and applications by seeking an interdisciplinary dialogue between methods and information from art and science, thereby contributing to forming intersectional approaches to tackle the climate crisis. Aiming to test equitable future scenarios, the goal of this new work is to make scientific research accessible through artistic expression, thereby exploring climate research findings as the basis for an inclusive future. Causal Legacies draws attention to the complexity of causal chains underlying the climate crisis and, above all, to raise awareness of social crises.
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