Set in Austria 2030, Illegal Rain transports visitors to the home of a farmer’s family facing permanent droughts.

Illegal Rain is an installation about the aftereffects of water scarcity and an attempt to make climate change relatable and specific. With an eight armed drone on the dining table the story and emotions of a family learning to modify the weather to induce rainfall starts to unfold.

Families gather around dining tables not only to eat but also to discuss sensitive issues and make important decisions. This makes the “Stube”, a traditional Austrian living room with a corner bench and a big dining table, an ideal setting to tell the story to visitors.

The curtains of the room are not fully closed, allowing to peek into the two different weather situations, rain in one and sun shining through clouds on the other. In the sunshine window, drones fly underneath clouds, burn Silver Iodide and create rain.

Besides its characteristic furnishing, the “Stube” is always filled with practical and emotional objects representing the people living there. By adding a twist to these objects and decors we bring in the rain making aspect of this Austrian family living in 2030 and leave clues for visitors to explore.

On the wall the family recipe for cloud seeding documents hang next to childhood pictures. The emotions of the story are reflected through the decorations, so that the Austrian family becomes more relatable for the visitor.

Illegal ingredients for Cloud Seeding and melted silver spoons to obtain Ag-Iod are stored in the foldable bench seats. We researched the technical components of an actual rain-making machine, the amount of Silver Iodide needed to effectively generate rain and the aerodynamics, so we know the weather hacking drone could fly. At that moment our first fictional idea became more realistic than we thought.

Alongside the soft sound of raindrops, visitors can sit on the corner bench and listen to the old radio. It plays the local news and tells the story of family Krainer from the perspective of an investigative journalist.

The center piece is the family drone. Tools, construction plans, weather books and the remote control show a snapshot of the family shortly after their success in inducing rainfall.

A 1 to 10 model can be seen at Design Labor, MAK Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien. Small screens play the scenario of rain and sunshine behind the windows.

Sketching out details of the drone. In regard to the industry 4.0 we used materials and tools to which the united neighbourhood of farmers could actually have access to.

At the beginning of the project making small scaled model really helped to test out the idea and how to design the setting to convey the story.

Approaching the feeling and emotions of an after abundant future through a family photo of the Krainer.