#stefanieposavec

What if we could really see and feel the burden that air pollution places on our bodies?

"Air Transformed is a series of wearable data objects that communicate this physical burden in different ways. Though seemingly decorative, they are based entirely on open air quality data from Sheffield, UK, a former steelmaking city and notorious for its bad air. Our task was to create friendly, accessible pieces that used open air quality data to inspire public engagement with the issue of air pollution. From the start, we knew we wanted to explore creating systems for transforming data into physical forms and this was something we worked hard to achieve: though the objects are intricate, nothing is ornamental: every aspect of the design was determined by data."

A quick look back, and then Happy New Year !

Just before christmas, we had a 72 hour collaborative workshop lead by Stefanie Posavec, a London-based artist working across data visualization.

We were challenged to create physical art using digital data, and then show it during an exhibition. The focus was on global issues and how to change peoples' attitude and behaviour with data art. 

My group decided to go with something that everyone may not see as an issue, something that people may do or may not do everyday, and something that everyone can change- breakfast routines. Having breakfast (or not) every day, has a big impact on your health, if you eat a small meal every morning it has benefits such as weight loss, less risk for diabetes, more energy and better focus at work. 

We created a breakfast buffet with different health benefits and consequenses, the visitors had to answer if they'd had breakfast or not, and then fill up their cups according to the recipe in front of them. A non-breakfast eater for example, had to fill his or her cup with 2 spoons of diabetes, whereas a breakfast eater could take 2 spoons of energy. In the end the cups made a beautiful visualisation of different health aspects, and the different colors in the cups made it clear that eating breakfast is something you should try to do. 

An interesting side note, or something we noticed through the day, was that people who didn't eat breakfast seemed more eager to break the rules than the breakfast eaters. They usually did not follow the recipe in the right order- but the breakfast eaters did.