Creative Sunshine

"Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun!" - Albert Einstein.

Creativity, in all its elusive forms, can be seen to have defined the modern world in which we live. Within the UK, the creative industries (often referred to as the 'soft power' of the UK) have played a key part in defining Britain's global identity. Ranging from cinema to video games, these industries have influenced our culture, economy and reputation.

As part of the recent OpenWeather challenge, Cassie Lee and Viv Li from Imperial College London presented their proof-of-concept project Feels Like Weather. Their weather widget uses art to convey what the forecast will “feel like” for a particular day that is meaningful to you.

The creative industries contribute £115 billion to the UK economy annually, employing over 2 million people. Within the UK movie industry, films such as "Skyfall" and "Spectre" earned respectively around £1 billion and £850 million globally. These blockbusters not only contribute directly through box office sales but also boost tourism, merchandise sales, and related industries. The music industry alone is worth £4 billion annually, employing 145,000 people. Ed Sheeran's Divide tour not only broke attendance records but also offered employment opportunities ranging from sound engineering to event management.

The economic and employment contribution of human creativity on the economy is well documented - however what is more elusive is what creativity really is, and how it is born.

The Effect of Weather

The subtle connection between weather and creativity has been understood for centuries. The sometimes rapid change in atmospheric conditions can be seen to have an influence on human mood, behavior and ultimately, creativity itself.

A gloomy day might inspire a slightly sadder set of song lyrics, or a sunny afternoon a vibrant painting, weather plays an instrumental role in the artistic process.

Within literature, authors have used weather to set the tone or atmosphere of their novels. In Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights,” the bleak and wild moors mirror the tumultuous relationship between the characters. Centuries later, the same atmospheric conditions inspired Kate Bush with her song based on the same novel.

Modern best-selling authors can also be inspired by the effects of our weather. J.K. Rowling famously thought of the idea for the Harry Potter series during a rainy afternoon in a crowded Glasgow café. The gloomy weather and bustling café atmosphere provided the perfect backdrop for her creative imagination to flourish.

Vincent van Gogh’s "Wheatfield with Crows" highlights the power of weather in influencing visual arts. The vivid skies and the path that leads to nowhere give a sense of despair and turmoil, believed to reflect van Gogh's own state of mind during his last days.

Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” is a classic example where each concerto corresponds to a different season. The music brings to life the chirping of birds in the spring, the sweltering heat of the summer, the harvest and festivities of autumn, and the icy landscapes of winter.

Creativity and the OpenWeather Challenge:

The OpenWeather Challenge is an exciting and thought-provoking competition that promotes innovative uses of meteorological data for real-world applications.

The challenge encourages creativity, especially for environmentally focussed projects. Even though the challenge was a technical one, our winners combined both excellent technical skills with creativity and art. This year we received hundreds entries, with one of the prize winners creating a fascinating combination of technology and art:

Feels Like Weather*- Cassie Lee and Viv Li*

This weather widget uses art to convey how the weather will feel on a specific day. For upcoming outdoor events, after saving the date and location, the app displays a picture reflecting the forecast. The image changes with the forecast with air pollution affecting its visibility. The back of the image provides detailed forecast information, with a fun surprise possible on sunny days.

Environmental Artists and Weather:

Some artists deliberately incorporate weather into their creative process. Environmental artists, in particular, use natural elements like wind, rain, and sunlight to create site-specific artworks. Anthony Howe is renowned for his mesmerizing wind sculptures. These kinetic artworks harness the power of the wind to create intricate and ever-changing patterns, demonstrating how weather can be an integral part of the artistic process.

Storm chasers, like the team behind the IMAX film "Tornado Alley," use their knowledge of weather patterns and technology to capture awe-inspiring footage of tornadoes and storms. The dramatic weather events serve as both the subject and inspiration for their creative work.

How OpenWeather can help the artistic process

OpenWeather’s diverse range of products offers detailed insights that can be incredibly beneficial for artists.

The OpenWeather App can fit in perfectly with your creative process, providing a wealth of features in a sleek, user-friendly way to give you access to accurate and detailed weather information, right at your fingertips.

About OpenWeather:

OpenWeather provides weather data for any location on the globe using a proprietary hyperlocal forecasting model with a resolution from 500 m to 2 km, globally. More than 6,000,000 customers from logistics, agriculture, insurance, energy, retail, and many other sectors, are working with the company's weather products.

OpenWeather cooperates with global meteorological agencies such as MetOffice and NOAA, and enhances its model with data from radars, weather stations and satellites. The company provides great availability of service at 99.9% for enterprise-level products.

The products can be easily integrated into complex IT systems and are ideal for ML analytic systems. OpenWeather is a member of Royal Meteorological Society and an Achilles-certified supplier. OpenWeather ethical initiatives include support of educators and students, not-for-profit subscriptions for the general public to increase weather awareness, and recent Ukrainian donation programme.

For more information on how to gain access to our OpenWeather products, please email us.