Air project
Sharing by nature
Let’s imagine a future in which fresh air has become an extremely rare and valuable commodity. As an effect of overpopulation and the resulting economical and political developments, human exhalations are now carefully collected and categorised into different purity classes. Higher social classes have priority access to quality air, only the rich can afford this luxury. Members of the lower social classes can only access second-lung air, exhaled by the rich. These leftovers not only contain less oxygen but also come with the risk of contagious disease. Risks the wealthy no longer dare to take.
This project is not about air quality as such. It is about quality of access. The project addresses issues of owner-ship and access to the most basic of human needs in relation to co-existence.
The installation
Visitors receive a mask that they have to wear over their face. This mouthpiece allows them to breathe normally while their exhaled air is collected in a plastic air container.
After putting on the mask, visitors enter the installation space. It is a comfortable, bright and open space and has a quiet and meditative atmosphere. It is completely sealed. Visitors find themselves in a reservoir of plastic air containers, part of a logistic system of some sort. Each container carries the exhalations of one specific, previous visitor. They are hanging from a metal grid on a steel supporting structure and seem to be hung in a specific order, based on size, date of creation or some other data. They are waiting for transportation or screening process. Larger ones reach below eye level and thus force the visitor to get into physical contact with the containers as they walk through and study them from up close. The constantly growing number of containers makes the space more dense and harder to move through.
Throughout their stay in the space the visitors can move around freely, wearing their masks. Meanwhile, the plastic air containers are collecting their exhalations and grow bigger, slowly but continuously. When people decide to leave the space an assistant detaches the container from its owner and seals it. At this stage, visitors have the option to get photographed with their own exhalations, their breaths contained in plastic. Afterwards the container is labeled, classified and processed, taken back into the installation space and stored amidst all previous exhalations that make up the installation.
Data embodiment as a participatory tool and tangible experience
The air, exhaled by visitors and collected into air containers, is used both as an abstract analogy and a realistic precedent, embodying resources. The collection of second-lung air creates a “lung-print” of the visits. At the same time it is a real time data embodiment that represents the interaction between human and environment as well as the collective use of resources.
Air is an intangible but most vital commodity. Visitors are confronted with a situation in which their exhaled air is collected and processed without much clarity as to what exactly for. Because we need air on a regular and short term basis, wearing a mask makes the visitors feel the effects of the altered physiological conditions straight away, in a very direct and bodily fashion.
The intensely intimate experience puts visitors in a position in which they reflect upon the action of breathing and the physical qualities of air. The quantity and volume of the used air becomes instantly visible and draws their attention to their relation with it. With the mere action of putting their names on the air container, visitors define it as their own property and develop an instant relationship between themselves and the air they exhaled. We don't monopolise air by collecting, sealing or holding it in our hands, but rather by attaching it to a person, articulate to ourselves and express to others that it belongs to us.
The spatial and psychological experience appeals to the sensual part of the visitors’ mind. It thus exceeds ecological footprint measures and visualizations, which highlight unsustainability of consumption trends in contemporary societies but only address the cognitive. Data embodiment builds up a very personal, sensual experience and evokes involvement and engagement within the perceiver.
We don't monopolise air by collecting, sealing or holding it in our hands, but rather by attaching it to a person, articulate to ourselves and express to others that it belongs to us.
Real time data embodiment represents the interaction both between human and environment and the collective use of resources.
Sharing is in our nature, it always has been. It is in our blood. It is in our lungs.
A broader perspective
The project calls to consider a broader perspective on our present and prospective relation to air, air quality and the use of resources in general. This project is not about air quality as such. It is about quality of access. The project addresses issues of ownership and access to the most basic of human needs in relation to our co-existence and puts visitors in a position in which they reflect upon these from an intensely intimate experience.
Life is only possible through shared use of shared resources. And not only natural resources, but the sharing of tools, spaces, capacities, possibilities and knowledge are all essential to human civilisation. Soft and hard infrastructures of shared use and culture of social decision making inherently influence our lives. The quality of access - with all underlying inequalities - is a mirror to our social, economic and political systems that determine its current form, and to our culture of social collaboration and co-existence. Thus we urge to rethink and discuss our views on sharing resources and look for new, alternative models of doing so.
Today, basic concepts around private property and market economy, ideas at the heart of modern Western society, are being thoroughly questioned. As a counter movement to the influential forces of the dominant market economy the need for new social, economical and political systems based on the concept of sharing and the collective management of resources is increasingly expressed. Our project articulates a view that openness and willingness to share resources has always been a basic feat of humanity. Moreover, it precedes the concept of property and the understanding of mine versus yours. We share our most essential resource without any thought of ownership. Sharing is in our nature, it always has been. It is in our blood. It is in our lungs.