The Weather
Has Been
Cancelled

The weather has been cancelled (TWHBC) is an artwork in the form of an interactive fiction videogame which functions as a cultural model for climate change. In the video game, the player wakes up and discovers that the weather has been ‘cancelled’. They are then left to dwell on the weatherless earth.

While climate change is often portrayed in meteorological data, people connect to their climate culturally: in habits, clothing, language, religion and art. Similarly, people have difficulty speaking about climate change, but love speaking about the weather.

By cancelling the weather, the artwork exposes this asymmetrical relationship between climate and weather.

The weather has been cancelled appears as a live film in which the player is the protagonist; it has a mesmerising soundtrack and a lyrical narrative. The visuals reference different stages in gaming history and are purposefully kept minimal. As much as there is an impossibility to imagine the full complexity of climate change, similarly there is an impossibility to imagine the world without the weather. Rather than creating a ‘finished’ game environment for the player to navigate, Visser engineers a fragmented, alluring, complex world that both reveals and withholds, in order to ignite the building of a complex world within the player’s imagination.

Text: Jasmijn Visser – source: jasmijnvisser.com

Concept, script

Jasmijn Visser

Research

Jasmijn Visser

Game development

Ingmar König

Visual design

Jasmijn Visser

3D modelling, animation

Ingmar König

Additional design elements

Shortnotice Studio

Sound design

Jasmijn Visser

Script editing

Nicky Rehnberg

Game environment concept and design consultation

Ingmar König

Conceptual consultation

Lantian Xie

Publication

Shortnotice Studio

Visual identity for media dissemination

Shortnotice Studio

The development of ‘The weather has been cancelled’ was supported by Creative Industries Fund and The Meertens Institute. Concept development is supported by Cultural Climate Models, CREAM Westminster University London, & the Rachel Carson Center Munich. The production of the publication is sponsored by Mondriaan Foundation and Villa Heike.

Credits as listed on jasmijnvisser.com