Tag: SPARK Festival 2024

We are proud to share that our latest project, This Place Has Its Own Air, a data-driven video-installation created by Polina Zioga and Catherine M. Weir, in partnership with the Clean Air Network (CAN), premiered at the SPARK Festival 2024 ‘Healthy Futures’ in Hong Kong! This milestone marks the outcome of 18 months of dedicated remote research, collaboration, and production, bringing together art, science, and technology to address the critical issue of air quality, and the air pollution of our environment. Air pollutants can spread across long distances and are principally the products of combustion from space heating, power generation or from motor vehicle traffic. They are monitored and regulated, as they can cause both short- and long-term negative health effects. However, despite recent improvements, air pollution remains the biggest environmental threat to health.

The video-installation consists of an animated moving image, which expands and contracts, as if breathing, following the human adult respiratory rate. It is created using average hourly readings of the city’s pollutants to generate a colour filter, while a particle system appears and overlays different parts of the image, as the concentration of hazardous pollutants rises and falls throughout the day. As a result, the installation aesthetically immerses the viewers, enables them to have a glimpse of the air they breathe, and increases their awareness of the need for reducing environmental pollution.

Looking Ahead

We are excited to continue fostering conversations around clean air and environmental awareness through innovative projects like this one. This Place Has Its Own Air serves not only as an artistic expression but also as a call to action for all of us to reduce environmental pollution, and improve air quality.

For those interested in exploring more about the project, please visit our dedicated webpage and check out the teaser video. Together, let’s make clean air a visible and vital topic in our communities!

As part of the SPARK Festival 2024 ‘Healthy Futures’, the Interactive Filmmaking Lab®, in partnership with the Clean Air Network (CAN), present This Place Has Its Own Air, a data-driven video-installation created by Polina Zioga and Catherine M. Weir, accompanied by a public talk. The project focuses on the quality of the air we breathe, and the air pollution of our environment, which are inextricably linked. Air pollutants can spread across long distances and are principally the products of combustion from space heating, power generation or from motor vehicle traffic. They are monitored and regulated, as they can cause both short- and long-term negative health effects. However, despite recent improvements, air pollution remains the biggest environmental threat to health.

The title of the video-installation is based on the seminal memoir The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd (1893-1981), a Scottish writer and poet, and is concerned with the effect of the city’s air on the body. It consists of an animated moving image, which expands and contracts, as if breathing, following the human adult respiratory rate. It is created using average hourly readings of the city’s pollutants to generate a colour filter, while a particle system appears and overlays different parts of the image, as the concentration of hazardous pollutants rises and falls throughout the day. As a result, the installation aesthetically immerses the viewers, enables them to have a glimpse of the air they breathe, and increases their awareness of the need for reducing environmental pollution. During the public talk attendees will learn more about the artists’ creative process and research, listen to expert perspectives on air pollution, and learn what they can do individually and collectively to improve it.