Air Quality Cocktail

AIR QUALITY COCKTAIL

Environmental challenges, for example climate change, water pollution, or air pollution are complex, and generally difficult to grasp for those who are not affected. This lack of general comprehension may also contribute to these challenges not being contained adequately by civil societies and policymakers. This interdisciplinary project presents the design and implementation of an interface that aims to raise awareness about the air quality of urban cities as a gustatory experience. The motivation for this project originated from Jessica Broscheit’s personal experience during a three-month visit to China. While Broscheit explored the streets of Beijing with her camera, she also experienced unhealthy air quality levels between 201 and 360 according to the U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI). These high values drew Broscheit’s attention to the density and flavor of smog: A “cocktail” with notes of lead and toxic chemicals that dried out her mouth. Based on Broscheit’s subjective perception, we envisioned a data-driven mixer that is able to interpret particulate matter concentrations with the aim of translating urban air pollution as a gustatory experience. In summary, we developed a functional prototype that is able to mix an “air quality cocktail” based on real-time datasets of urban cities. Depending on the dataset, the mixer can serve three distinct drinks, representing good, unhealthy, and hazardous air quality. The purpose of the developed mixer is to become an object for debate and knowledge transfer, by serving provocative drinks that raise awareness about the atmospheric environment among the civil society.

A project by Thomas Lehmann (HAW, Computer Science), Andrea Bauer (HAW, Food Science and Nutrition), and Jessica Broscheit (THB, Media Design).