Invisible Pollution at the Festival Of The Mind
By Damian Bemben
I had the opportunity to work on the Festival of The Mind in Sheffield this year. For those who didn’t read the previous blog, the Festival is a large scientific and artistic collaboration that happens every two years, and I was lucky enough to collaborate with the Urban Flows Observatory to create a project!
The urban flows observatory seeks to understand how the physical (energy and material resources) metabolism of cities can be effectively measured, understood, and utilized, and as such, had a lot of really interesting data!
This post will go more in-depth as to what and why we created our exhibits, rather than the management aspect in my previous post.
Why did we create this exhibit?
Pollution is a big issue, I'm sure you’ve gotten the headlines about all the effects that pollution has, and how pollution can lead to increased cases of respiratory complications, things that are incredibly important (even more-so during a pandemic that causes respiratory issues and is thought to cause worse cases the worse pollution is).
But there’s a glaring issue with the way this information is being given. Because it never feels like it has much impact. A 10% increase is the same as a 15% increase because we don’t really have that much to compare it with. Not to mention the figures! It’s so easy to write large figures as we want them to have an impact (we’ve done this ourselves) but numbers very quickly become too large to have a stake in reality.
You may have felt this yourself quite recently. Seeing Covid-19 statistics tick-up and up and up.
Apologies for this depressing reality
You’re not a psychopath, there’s actually a good reason why it’s hard to scale your emotions, a phenomenon called Psychic Numbing.
Source — Arithmetic of Compassion
It means that as we get larger and larger numbers, they very quickly comparatively less and less important. So during the Festival, I wanted to show pollution in a way that will not only just show the data, but would actually have an impact on whoever is reading it.
But how?
I wanted to keep things simple, using two main measurements.
Now, if you’re interested, i’ve linked the measurements but they involve understanding a little bit about air pollution in general (which you can by visiting our website first)
The reasons for picking these two is that although some people don’t know the effects that cigarettes have to them directly, I think it still provides a really eye-opening view of how bad pollution is in certain areas. Everyone knows about the effects that second-hand smoke has on you, so why do we accept breathing in hundreds of cigarettes of pollution every year.
The second one is similar but is trying to say that directly, to the person currently in that area, these are the amounts of days, weeks, or years that they would lose by just the effects of pollution.
So we’ve got the metrics, but what do we actually do to present these findings?
What did you make?
A lot.
Initially, the project was just going to be a single hardware exhibit. A form of virtual reality “periscope” meant to show you the actual pollution in the current area that you are in. However, after the pandemic started I very much doubted that many people would have wanted to stick their face into a periscope (and quite rightfully so!).
So, I began by working on a website displaying sensor data, then creating a contactless physical exhibit using the Leap Motion controller, then it all sort of spiralled out of control. (To see how I managed to deal with it, read this other post!)
In the end, we created the following deliverables for the Festival of The Mind: A physical tech exhibit at the Millenium Gallery, A podcast, a talk, a website, a futurecade virtual exhibit, as well as a video for building projections (shown below!)
Building projections (top and bottom) and the physical exhibit at the festival (middle)
The Results
Although we’re still collating some of the feedback from the Festival, I got a ton of positive feedback and messages about both the virtual and physical exhibit.
And most importantly, and my proudest accomplishment:
Someone was walking past the building projection, saw the terrible pollution level and decided to put on their mask
So I’d say that was pretty successful
To get updated on the stuff I create, follow my github, or if you’re not techy, follow my twitter
I’ve also made both of the apps fully open!
Firstly, the Leap Motion Demo:
Invisible Pollution Leap Motion
Edit description
damianbemben.itch.io
Secondly, the particle simulation:
Invisible Pollution Particle Simulation
Particle simulation for the festival of the mind 2020. Available for Windows
damianbemben.itch.io
Thank you for reading, and wear a mask, not just to stop covid, but to stop the awful pollution as well.