About
Storm-Cloud is an interdisciplinary artistic research project conceived and led by artist-researcher Dr Tom Payne at Sheffield Hallam University. Taking John Ruskin’s 1884 lectures The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century as a point of departure, it brings artists, scientists, museum collections and communities together to explore how changing atmospheres are observed, represented and understood.
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The project unfolds through performance, exhibition, film, conversation, participation and an evolving online archive. It is developed with collaborators working across performance, museums, moving image, music, choreography and public participation, with each event and work bringing together a different constellation of people.
Ruskin, Sheffield and the present
In 1884, John Ruskin delivered two lectures under the title The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century. Drawing on decades of close observation, he described changes in the appearance of the sky and understood them in relation to the pollution and industrial modernity of his time. He was not writing about climate change in its present sense, but his attempt to read environmental disturbance through lived observation has acquired new urgency.
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Storm-Cloud began through Tom Payne’s work with Ashley Gallant, curator of the Ruskin Collection at Sheffield Museums. An invitation to explore the museum stores opened a wider enquiry into how Ruskin’s lecture might be encountered now: through performance, museum collections, scientific knowledge, artistic response and public participation.
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Weather observations were also being recorded at Weston Park, Sheffield, in 1884. The symbols used in those meteorological returns now form part of Storm-Cloud’s visual language, connecting the project to acts of atmospheric observation made in the same year as Ruskin’s lectures.
Monthly meteorological return, Weston Park, Sheffield, February 1884. Observer: W. J. Cooper. National Meteorological Archive, MET/2/4/1/1/j/2/245. Reproduced under the Open Government Licence.
How
Storm-Cloud works
Storm-Cloud is organised as an evolving system rather than a single production. Its different parts connect Ruskin’s lecture, contemporary artistic enquiry, documented works and responses made by others.
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The archive
The lecture is presented in 39 annotated parts, bringing Ruskin’s text into conversation with contemporary sources, images and perspectives.
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Gathered into Strands
Five interconnected strands describe how the project develops through observation, contemplation, dialogue, artistic form and participation.
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Works
Performances, exhibitions, films, installations, talks and gatherings are documented as distinct works and evolving iterations.
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Impressions of the Matter
An open invitation enables artists, researchers, students and communities to respond to any aspect of Ruskin’s lecture.
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Works arising from Storm-Cloud
Substantial independently authored works developed through encounters with Storm-Cloud are recognised and presented in their own right.​​
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Development
Storm-Cloud has developed through successive performances, exhibitions, collaborations and responses. Each iteration extends the enquiry rather than reproducing a fixed work.
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2023 - Beginnings
Storm-Cloud began in early 2023 through an extended period of artistic research and development. Across meetings, workshops, rehearsals, photographic enquiry, audio recording and successive test versions, Ruskin’s lecture was brought into conversation with contemporary atmospheric science, museum collections, changing technologies and performance-making.
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The work developed with mentoring from Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment and through partnerships with Space Hub Yorkshire, UK EONS, the Guild of St George, Sheffield Theatres, Sheffield Museums and Invisible Dust.
This sustained phase established Storm-Cloud’s interdisciplinary method, collaborative network and production framework, culminating in the first public programme in Sheffield in June 2024.
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Tom Payne in the Peak District during the first phase of photographic research for Storm-Cloud, 2023.
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19 June 2024: Observations of the Sky
Storm-Cloud: Observations of the Sky, a performance of Ruskin’s lecture in 39 parts, premiered at the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres.
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Tom Payne accompanied by motion design by Jake Goodall, in Storm-Cloud: Observations of the Sky, the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres, 19 June 2024. ​
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20 June 2024: The Better Knowledge of Friends
The following day, artists, researchers and project partners gathered at Sheffield Museums to continue the enquiry through conversation, exchange and shared knowledge.​
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Attendees at The Better Knowledge of Friends dialogue day at the Millennium Gallery, 2024.
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12 October 2024: Thrown into Form
AAt No Bounds Festival, the lecture-performance was reconfigured at SADACCA’s G-Mill under the title Thrown into Form, as part of a site-responsive programme of newly created performance, photography, moving image, music and artistic responses. The following day, a talk at Green Estate connected the work with Sheffield’s environmental and civic contexts.
Ra'Siah in Storm-Cloud: Thrown into Form, SADACCA’s G-Mill, No Bounds Festival, 12 October 2024. ​
Tom Payne's talk at the Green Estate as part of No Bounds Festival following Thrown into Form, 13 October 2024.
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14 November 2024 - Manchester
A further iteration of Observations of the Sky was presented at Grosvenor East Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University. Manchester carries particular significance within the project because of its presence in Ruskin’s lecture, while the presentation extended the work into a new academic and public context.
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October 2025: Storm-Cloud 360
For No Bounds Festival, Jake Goodall created Storm-Cloud 360: Fragments in Connection, a new digital work drawing together fragments of the lecture, atmospheric imagery and the developing Storm-Cloud archive.
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Participants experiencing Jake Goodall's Storm-Cloud 360: Fragments in Connection, The Igloo, Sheffield Hallam University, No Bounds Festival, October 2025.
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Late 2025: Impressions of the Matter
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The Impressions of the Matter live brief was launched at Manchester Metropolitan University as part of the Victorians Now conference. The launch combined a further presentation of Observations of the Sky with a workshop involving students and staff across Performance and English Literature.
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Returning the lecture-performance to Manchester, a city directly implicated in Ruskin’s account of industrial atmosphere, opened an evolving archive of creative and observational responses across institutions, disciplines and places.
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Tom Payne in Storm-Cloud: Observations of the Sky, Grosvenor East Theatre, Manchester, October 2025.
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November 2025 to November 2026: The Look of the Sky
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The Look of the Sky brought Storm-Cloud into the Ruskin Collection at Sheffield Museums, connecting Ruskin’s lecture with performance, collections, film, artistic responses and contemporary acts of atmospheric observation.
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The exhibition unfolds through successive parts rather than remaining fixed. Part One opened in November 2025 and ran until March 2026. Part Two continues until 14 August 2026. Part Three will introduce a newly commissioned film by White Teeth, updates to Jake Goodall’s moving-image work and responses generated through Impressions of the Matter. Further changes will follow as new contributions enter the archive.
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Video installation by Jake Goodall, The Look of the Sky, Ruskin Collection, Millennium Gallery, March 2026.
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Mixed media artefacts produced by Graphic Design students at Sheffield Hallam University in response to Impressions of the Matter.
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First half of 2026: The live brief expands
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Following its Manchester launch, Impressions of the Matter expanded through new collaborations and public activity. This included Art of Science at Sheffield Museums and four films developed by Screen Yorkshire with Sheffield Hallam University students. During this period, White Teeth were also commissioned to create a film for the next part of The Look of the Sky.
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Documentation from White Teeth 98's production of Fruit Doesn't Survive in Salt, June 2026.
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April 2026: Paris
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The lecture-performance travelled internationally through a presentation at the Sorbonne in Paris as part of Living Matters, extending the project’s network across performance, environmental humanities and interdisciplinary research.
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24-25 October 2026: Oxford​
Observations of the Sky will be presented at Oxford University Museum of Natural History as part of IF Oxford Science + Ideas Festival, in partnership with the Ashmolean Museum. The programme will bring together the lecture-performance, films, conversations and contributions to Impressions of the Matter.
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Ongoing
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New works, partnerships and iterations continue to develop through different artists, disciplines, collections, communities, places and climates.
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