ABSTRACT
The Earth’s atmosphere is often depicted as a natural and scientific entity—although one that has increasingly undergone transformation owing to human activity–which can furthermore be studied objectively. To visualize atmospheric politics also requires grappling with questions Mirzoeff poses about the Anthropocene, which he argues cannot be seen in its totality owing to its scope and timescale exceeding a human life. While Photogrammar wasn't developed with the aim of excavating the atmosphere's political ecology, its cross-cutting work of expanding public access, searchability, and visualization makes the Dust Bowl's political, social, and environmental factors more accessible. The potential of visualizing atmospheric politics to stimulate conversation, assert counter-visuality, and expand the picturable, spans a diverse field of artistic projects and interdisciplinary practices. To visualize atmospheric politics requires committed attention to the problems of visualization, from its colonial origins to the contours of information asymmetry and bias shaping contemporary knowledge and image production.
