Methane data and dishonest oil company advertising are juxtaposed in Smoke and Mirrors, a new visualisation produced by artist and musician Beatie Wolfe in collaboration with visual effects studio Parliament.
Debuting last week at South by Southwest, Smoke and Mirrors doubles as a video clip for Wolfe's song Oh My Heart, which was released in 2022 on the world's first bioplastic vinyl.
While plumes of brown gas slowly engulf an image of planet Earth, the video displays phrases like "out to clean our air", "unsettled science" and "don't risk our future" ? all slogans used in oil industry advertising from 1970 to today.
Beatie Wolfe's Smoke and Mirrors visualisation premiered at South by Southwest
The final text overlay reads "net-zero" and beneath it "achieving net-zero emissions is part of our powering progress strategy", and is from a 2023 Shell ad. "Smoke and Mirrors is about visualising not just the methane data (smoke) in a way people can really absorb but also the disinformation (mirrors), which has caused the data to be denied, doubted and delayed through the decades," Wolfe told Dezeen.
Smoke and Mirrors follows another climate-themed interactive video installation Wolfe made in 2021, which used her song From Green to Red and was displayed at COP26.
The piece features lines from oil company advertising
Wolfe said the idea for Smoke and Mirrors came after seeing how that project "helped people to see the...