Swollen Cheeks is an ongoing exploration about human characteristic attributed to weather phenomenon, specially wind currents. In greek mythology, the Anemoi are the wind gods that blow from a cardinal direction and bring the seasons, storms, diseases or fecundity. Commonly called 'windheads', these figures are usually found as a decorative element in old world maps.
"...but beginning in the second half of the fifth century B.C. an image appears that will be frequently repeated over the centuries, namely, the face of a man or of a putto with swollen cheeks who blows on the sea waves, or along other winds, from the four points of the compass."
– Alessandro Nova, 2011
– Alessandro Nova, 2011
1. Which direction is the wind blowing?
Using the Open Weather API I built a simple interface that allows you to search for a city and know in which direction the wind is blowing at the moment, with a corresponding image of a windhead.
2. Swollen Cheeks Zine
Project references:
- The Book of the Wind: The Representation of the Invisible (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011), Alessandro Nova
- The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps (1472 - 1700). Rodney W. Shirley
- The Marvelous Clouds : Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media<, University of Chicago Press, 2015. John Durham Peters .