Tamiko Thiel
Atmos Sphaerae
Virtual reality immersive experience by Tamiko Thiel, running time 9 minutes.
Stereo VR for Oculus in 2021; rebuilt for large projection immersive video in 2022.
Original music by Christoph Reiserer; 3D audio sound engineering by Martin Rieger/VR Tonung

Originally created for the DiMoDA 4.0: Dis/Location VR exhibition, curated by Christiane Paul.
Premiered in 2021 at Gazelli Art House, London, as part of their gazell.io digital art program.

A deep time meditation on the changing elemental composition of the atmosphere of the planet Earth.


Atmos Sphaerae

Atmos Sphaerae uses the poetic beauty of the scientific notation „Lewis structures“ to make visible the atomic composition of the normally invisible molecules in the atmosphere visible. It takes the viewer from the pre Big Bang VOID through the proto-planetary gases, to the life-giving water, the Great Oxygenation Event triggered by photosynthesizing cyanobacteria, to the runaway greenhouse triggered by humans‘ voracious appetite for fossil fuels.


Video excerpts:


Atmos Sphaerae Scene 1: The VOID



Atmos Sphaerae Scene 2: Protoplanetary Disk



Atmos Sphaerae Scene 3: Volcanos in a magma ocean



Atmos Sphaerae Scene 4: Water World



Atmos Sphaerae Scene 5: Cyanobacteria and the Great Oxygenation Event



Atmos Sphaerae Scene 6: Oil Fields



Atmos Sphaerae Scene 7: Runaway Greenhouse