An ongoing series of instruments and experimental measurement systems by Tiziana Alocci.
In 1787, Swiss naturalist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure developed the cyanometer, an instrument designed to measure the blueness of the sky. Originally conceived as a series of numbered colour samples and later refined into a circular scale, the instrument transformed an ephemeral visual observation into quantifiable data.
Building upon this historical attempt to measure the intangible, Alocci introduces a growing collection of fine-art instruments, experimental methodologies and speculative systems of measurement, developed as part of the artist's ongoing research, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost.
Beginning with colour, the works investigate the sky through its perceived shape, spatial extent, luminosity, atmospheric pollution, environmental conditions and the influence of climate change. Each instrument proposes a distinct framework of observation, establishing its own parameters, classifications and units through which to register phenomena that resist conventional measurement.
The Vanishing Sky ultimately proposes measurement as a form of attention: an attempt to record what is continuously changing, and to give temporary form to what cannot be held.
Cyanometer for an overcast sky, coloured pencil and graphite on paper
