UC Irvine’s Beall Center for Art and Technology presents “Atmospherics/Weather Works,” an exhibition that uses real science and data to create sonifications of global climate change, air pollution, ocean waves and other phenomena. Created by new media artist Andrea Polli, each work is accompanied by striking visual art. The title work is a powerful sonification of temperature, pressure, wind and moisture data taken from Hurricane Bob, which devastated the New York/Long Island area in 1991. “Airlight SoCal,” created for and debuting at the Beall Center, uses current data from air-quality monitoring stations around Southern California to create a soundscape that accompanies a real-time image of Interstate 5, itself transformed by changes in data.

Also making their U.S. debut are “T2: Tide, Wind and Wave in the Pacific Rim,” which creates an environment using live webcams, ocean data and other sources from the Pacific coasts of the U.S. and New Zealand, and “The Strange Journey of PM2.5,” which considers the path of a pollution particle riding air channels from China to the U.S. Other works include “Heat and the Heartbeat of the City,” which illustrates the dramatic temperature changes expected as a warming climate takes its toll on New York City, and “N.,” an interpretation of climate changes in the Arctic.

Andrea Polli is a digital media artist living in New York City and director of the Integrated Media Arts M.F.A. Program at Hunter College. She works with city planners, environmental and atmospheric scientists and other experts to look at the impact of climate on the future of life both locally and globally. Her projects often bring together artists and scientists from various disciplines. She is interested in global systems, the real time interconnectivity of these systems and the effect of these systems on individuals. She has exhibited, performed and lectured nationally and internationally. (For more information and visuals of some exhibits, visit www.andreapolli.com.)