The clouds at Mia are mostly metaphorical—singular forms at the service of the artist rather than any natural phenomena. An array of harmless white puffs, an ominous black mass. It wasn’t until the 19th century that anyone bothered to categorize clouds. Though when a young British meteorologist finally did, in 1803, it was a poet—Göethe—who took it upon himself to popularize the names in four musical poems—”Stratus,” “Cumulus,” “Cirrus,” and “Nimbus”—claiming them for art as much as science.
Now, for the first time since 1987, new categories of clouds have been officially recognized and added to the International Cloud Atlas that has been maintained since 1896. And they are among the most dramatic formations you can imagine.
One of the newly named clouds is asperitas, which resembles a churning sea. Members of the Cloud Appreciation Society, some 43,000 around the world, used the Cloudspotter app to snap and share images of the unique formation, confirming its widespread existence. The volutus, or roll cloud, is another—it resembles a baguette, spinning in space.
Unlike the big solar-system redux of a few years back, however, no cloud got the Pluto treatment. Cumulus, nimbus, cirrus, and stratus are still up there, waiting for you to notice.
Top image: Cloud World by Maynard Dixon, on view in gallery G301.