Theo Triantafyllidis,
“Funny Weather”
A live, screen-based simulation transforming real-time atmospheric data into a constantly evolving weather forecast for a world in climate uncertainty.
Funny Weather is the inaugural commission of Behind the Screen, led by Factory International in collaboration with ACMI, Onassis ONX and M+
Through Kniaziakidis Productions, I lead project development and executive production on behalf of the artist, working across the creative, institutional and technical development of the commission.
From the press release:
Funny Weather by Theo Triantafyllidis is about navigating a new era of climate uncertainty in which the weather becomes a main character in our lives. It is a weather forecast for a world changing faster than it can be predicted. The new digital work is a screen based live simulation that plays with the format of a weather forecast. Visuals slowly transition from quiet cloud formations into epic sunsets, while migrating flocks transform into colourful kites. Combining real-time atmospheric data with recent bird sightings and a bespoke locally hosted AI Oracle, Funny Weather creates a constantly evolving picture of the skies above us.
Long before satellites, the sky was our first forecast. Birds were read for omens, clouds for portents, and wind for what was to come. Today, simulations and datasets, like those used in Funny Weather, are relied upon to predict future patterns, however with our changing climate predictive models built from existing knowledge and patterns can be limiting. Funny Weather explores this tension through a living, unpredictable, and at times darkly comical weather forecast.
Following its run in Manchester, Funny Weather will present at Onassis ONX (Athens and New York), M+ (Hong Kong) and ACMI (Melbourne), with each contributing their own site-specific data sets to further drive Funny Weather’s playful narrative.
World Premiere: Factory International, Manchester · 11 November 2026
Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne: Autumn 2027
M+, Hong Kong: Autumn 2027
Onassis ONX, New York: To be announced
“The key message of the work can be condensed into a tension: a world approaching ecological collapse, interpreted through systems that remain playful, unreliable, and strangely hopeful. In this sense, Funny Weather is less about climate itself than about the conditions under which climate is perceived, narrated, and collectively understood, and about sexy airplanes.”
