Revisiting Pfynwald, the Swiss Alpine forest in Valais, during yet another dry spring, Rasa Smite continues her research with the partner workshop Tools for Data Sensorialization, taking place on May 11, 2026 at ZHdK in Zurich. The workshop also marks a reflection on the first year of her research project Immersion Studies for Climate Experiences, funded by the SNSF Practice-to-Science programme and hosted by the Immersive Art Space at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

Climate Data Sensorialization

Workshop 1 (Tools): Internal Partner Meeting and Research Lab Conversations — Bridging Climate Modelling, Experience, and Realities, focusing on interdisciplinary challenges and methodological exchange.

Monday, May 11, 2026
14:00–17:00
Location: Research Room 3.F03 (Ground Floor), Toni-Areal, ZHdK

Organized within the framework of Immersion Studies for Climate Experience, a research project funded by the SNSF Practice-to-Science programme (2025–2028), hosted by the Immersive Art Space at ZHdK.

Project context

Immersion Studies for Climate Experience (SNSF Practice-to-Science, 2025–2028) is an artistic research project at the intersection of climate science and immersive media. It investigates how climate data can be sensorialized — transformed into immersive and multi-sensorial environments (XR) — to make complex environmental processes perceptible and experientially meaningful.

The project explores how climate data may be translated into embodied experiences, what kinds of methodologies between art and science are needed to develop such environments, and whether immersive approaches can meaningfully relate perceptual experience to environmental realities and socio-economic contexts.

Emerging from a growing tension between increasingly sophisticated immersive technologies and the difficulty of connecting such experiences to actual climate realities, the project seeks to move beyond more conventional art–science paradigms based primarily on representation and collaboration alone.

This first internal partner meeting (Year 1 — Workshop 1: Tools) focuses on the methodological foundations of the project. Following initial field studies in Switzerland (e.g. Pfynwald and TreeNet monitoring sites) and early data collection, the workshop brings together close collaborators to reflect on datasets, sensing and modelling approaches, and strategies for climate data sensorialization that may open up new possibilities for bridging immersive experience and climatic realities.

Detailed Programme (14:00 – 17:00)

14:00 – Welcome & framing of Workshop 1 (Tools)
• Chris Salter (Immersive Art Space IAS, ZHdK)

14:10 – Immersion studies for climate experience (12-15 min)
From immersive eco-aesthetic environments (Atmospheric Forest) to data sensorialisation and multi-sensorial conditions – introducing (Altered Drought).
• Rasa Smite (IAS, ZHdK)

14:25 – Climate data: from sensing to modelling (12-15 min)
TreeNet monitoring network and data structures
• Micah Wilhelm (ZHdK / WSL)

14:40 – Climate science research perspectives (12-15 min)
Pfynwald experiment, Swiss forest dynamics, and global contexts
• Marcus Schaub (WSL)

14:55 – Socio-economic climate realities (12-15 min)
Sustainable finance, carbon offset markets, Amazonian deforestation
• Eric Nowak (USI Lugano)

15:10 – Environmental psychology & impact research (12-15 min)
From Assertion to Evidence: how artistic and design-based assumptions (assertion) can generate measurable impact (evidence). Atmospheric Forest as one of case studies or behavioural and perceptual impact
• Karin Zindel / Michael Krohn / Swen J. Kühne (ZHAW / ZHdK)

15:40 – Discussion on Interdisciplinary Methodologies: Bridging Experience and Realities:

Focus on how to bridge two distinct trajectories:

(1) the challenges of existing art–science collaborations through climate data, modelling, sensorialization, and immersive experience;
and (2) environmental, socio-economic, and large-scale climate realities beyond communication and representational frameworks.

The discussion will explore whether climate data sensorialization and immersive methodologies may open up new possibilities for bridging perceptual experience and climatic realities, while acknowledging the distances and differences between disciplinary approaches.
Planning next steps and next meetings.

Support and Credits

SNSF Practice-to-Science Grant (2025–2028)
Project:Immersion Studies for Climate Experience
Principal Investigator: Rasa Smite
Organized by project team: Rasa Smite and Micah Wilhelm
Hosted by: Immersive Art Space ZHdK
Partners: WSL (Birmensdorf), USI (Lugano), ZHAW/ZHdK (Zurich), RIXC (Riga)

https://blog.zhdk.ch/immersivearts/immersion-studies-for-climate-experiences-2025-2028/