Five creative approaches to air pollution as coronavirus pandemic leads to cleaner air
Air pollution – the silent killer that is too abstract to truly grasp just how pervasive it is in our lives. Do we really know what effect pollutants have on our health? It is one thing reading statistics linking nine thousand premature deaths in London alone to polluted air, and yet another to understand how each of us is directly affected. As the coronavirus pandemic leads to a huge drop in air pollution, we investigate artworks that highlight the problem.
Voyage on the Planet by Chiu Chih, 2013, (c) the artist
The 2010s as a decade could be characterised as the epoch when climate anxiety, as a concept, entered the global mainstream consciousness. Despite the best efforts to reduce our collective carbon footprint, 2019 was also the second hottest year on record since 1850. The need for a wide-reaching global collaboration is becoming more prescient every day in the face of a global climate catastrophe.
These are terrifying prospects, and yet we go about our daily business in the city, inhaling and exhaling polluted air. Living in central London - one of the worst offenders in the world in this area - I frequently find myself out of breath, with irritated eyes and a sore throat that goes away as soon as I leave for the countryside. People wait in the underground tunnel in a cloud of smog. Commuting becomes synonymous with the smell of dust burning as it comes in contact with the electrical current passing through the tracks.
Pollution Pods by Michael Pinksy, 2017, (c) the artist
Air pollution is as much a cultural and social issue as it is an ecological one, seeing as it is one of the most pervasive symptoms of climate change faced by city-dwellers day and night. The following creatives are addressing this by making the invisible presence of short-term pollutants present in our visual world. They are also pioneering design tools that could enable us to make more responsible choices when it comes to living in areas with toxic air.
Air Pollution: The problem that connects us
Pollution Pods by Michael Pinsky installed at Somerset House, London, 2018, (c) Peter Macdiarmid for Somerset House
Michael Pinsky is a British artist, whose Pollution Pods installation allows the audience to explore the air quality of different environments and different cities. The immersive installation is made up of five geodesic domes, all of which are climatically controlled by computers which monitor and recreate conditions of air quality, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide levels. Entering the first pod with the truly clean air of remote Tautra island in Norway, audiences then continue through the smog and pollution of London, New Delhi, Beijing and Sao Paolo. The drastic contrasts between the five environments highlight the differences across the places, but it also connects them. It centralises air pollution as a global issue.
2. Raising the flag on air pollution
Chloropleth by The Unseen, installed at Somerset House, London, 2018, (c) Somerset House
Another installation that was specially developed for Somerset House by The Unseen, a London-based studio blending designers, chemists, textile developers and engineers. The Chloropleth Flag was installed in the most polluted road of London, the Strand. The flag uses a chromic colour change compound which reacts in real-time to ultraviolet radiation. Owed in part to the greenhouse gases emitted by cars and buses on the roads and the rapid expansion of construction across the city, the ozone layer over London is thinning out. Excessive amounts of harmful UV radiation which are now getting through the thin ozone-barrier pose as many health risks as the air pollution itself. Chloropleth uses the blue, red, and white of the Union Jack flag. The vibrant colours transform to a monochrome black in real time according to radiation exposure levels in central London, turning the invisible threat visible. Could this fabric become a widely used indicator of UV-radiation in the future?
3. Mapping new ways of urban living
In the Air by MediaLab Prado, 2008, (c) MediaLab Prado
Visualising the air quality of cities, and engaging the public with their immediate environments is at the heart of the project initiated by Madrid-based MediaLab Prado. The project titled In the Air uses a web-based dynamic model that tracks real time data from Madrid, Budapest and Santiago de Chile. The data visualises microscopic and invisible agents of air to see how they perform, react and interact with the rest of the city. This allows the inhabitants to see which areas of their city are more polluted than others at any given time and what type of pollution is present in the area. With this, MediaLab hopes to play a vital role in the awareness and decision making of how the city is navigated by people.
4. Green-lit cars for a greener environment
Puff by Karolina Sobecka, 2010, (c) the artist
Artist and environmentalist, Karolina Sobecka is taking it in her stride to raise awareness about one of the main sources of air pollution in urban areas: vehicle exhaust fumes. Sobecka’s work explores the connection between design and IT in consumer culture, which is how Puff was born. Developed as an investigation of how personal devices and phone applications aid in visualising environmental impacts, Puff is a cloud-shaped accessory that attaches near the vehicle’s exhaust pipe. The cloud changes its colour from green, which indicates the lowest rate of pollution, to red when emission goes above a set limit. It is also in communication with a phone app that logs driving data, such as the total amount of carbon dioxide released and average rate of emission. Puff captures feedback about how much pollution is produced during driving, helping drivers and pedestrians alike learn about the direct and immediate effect of vehicles on air quality. The device encourages drivers to engage with their environmental impact.
5. How will we breathe in the future?
Voyage on the Planet by Chiuh Chih, 2013, (c) the artist
Designer Chiu Chih tackles the issue of the constantly declining air quality of urban areas with his project Voyage on the Planet. The project proposes a narrative in which people will no longer be able to breathe unfiltered air. Chih’s solution is a custom-built backpack that comes with an air-purifying plant and an attachable face mask. The wearer therefore is placed in a self-contained symbiotic relationship with the plant. At once using up the purified air but also giving out the CO2 gas for the plant to use during photosynthesis. He describes it as a sort of ‘survival kit for the ever-changing planet’, for a possible future when cities will become uninhabitable due to overpopulation and toxic levels of pollution. Whilst the backpack exists at the level of a conceptual proposal, it is not difficult to imagine a future in which people will be walking around with their own source of clean air.
Could these design projects become a common sight in our urban lives?
By reflecting on how people experience and encounter air pollution in their lives, designers and artists are visualising scientific research and data. They make it easier for us to be informed about the ways in which toxic pollutants impact us every day. While the current environmental effects of ecological balancing are one of the only positive things to come from the coronavirus pandemic, a virus is not a long term solution. Will humanity return to its former ways next year, contributing to ever-rising air pollution? Only time will tell. We hope people will notice the benefits and take a more conscious approach to improve air quality in the future.