Some anthropic and natural practices involve working with the atmospheric phenomena of change of state, including clouds, fog, frost, and dew. This contribution explains how human and non-human ‘cloud gardener’ (Clément, 2021) practices can allow us to explore new (co)design techniques and open our imagination to new possibilities.
The introductory paragraphs ‘Oceans of clouds. Drops of Fog,’ ‘The Rain Dance,’ and ‘Learning From Nature’ by Laura Cipriani introduce readers to this theme by addressing the scientific-technical and poetic-aesthetic dualism of climate modification and adaptation by technologies, humans, plants, insects, bacteria, and microorganisms that oscillate between the two inverse phenomena of the passage of state: condensation and vaporization.
The last paragraph ‘Clouds’ is an excerpt from Clément’s book Nuages (Clément, 2021) initially published in 2005. Clément explores clouds in the water cycle within the ‘planetary garden’ (Clément, 1999), intending to explain how cloud gardeners can ‘create’ and ‘hold’ water, frost, and fog in desert environments. From Chinese water towers to the Namib Desert, from the Atacama Desert to the everyday landscape of Clément in Limousin, France, cultivating clouds in dry regions of the planet also passes through the wisdom of gardeners who decide that their lawns should turn yellow. Letting plants organize with the new climate can provide hope in tackling the climate crisis.