That’s not Photoshop. The Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde has developed a way to create a small, perfect white cloud in the middle of a room. It requires meticulous planning: the temperature, humidity and lighting all have to be just so. Once everything is ready, Smilde summons the cloud out of the air using a fog machine. It lasts only moments, but the effect is dramatic and strangely moving. It evokes both the surrealism of Magritte and the classical beauty of the old masters while reminding us of the ephemerality of art and nature. (via Indoor Clouds | Best Inventions of the Year 2012 | TIME.com)

In Clouds, an upcoming documentary exploring the beauty of code, the talking heads on screen appear to be floating in thin air. Images of prominent hackers and artists, shot using a Microsoft Kinect sensor attached to a digital SLR, appear as points suspended in space that emerge, dissolve and reappear. The exclusive clip above, which was shot at the Eyeo Festival this week in Minneapolis and features artists Casey Reas, Shantell Martin and Theodore Watson, demonstrates the filmmakers’ innovative technique. The look of Clouds was designed to match the subject matter. “It’s like painting an ice sculpture,” said media artist James George, who is creating the film with Jonathan Minard, a fellow at Carnegie-Mellon’s Studio for Creative Inquiry. “You have a sculpture — the volume data — and we use the SLR to color the data. The combination of the two creates the effect.” (via Clouds, a Documentary Shot With Kinect, Explores Beauty of Code | Underwire | Wired.com)

Does Rain Come From Life in the Clouds? | Earth Science | DISCOVER Magazine

Does Rain Come From Life in the Clouds? Scientists are making their first forays into the mysterious world of biology miles up in the air. Their startling conclusion: That ecosystem in the sky might influence tomorrow’s weather and next year’s harvest.

Does Rain Come From Life in the Clouds? | Earth Science | DISCOVER Magazine