“A Matter of Air” is an interactive installation about environmental and public health policy. This project was a team effort of Aurelie Barbier, Katrin Bichler, Aron Cohen and Julie McEldoon. The installation visualizes data from the New York Community Air Survey from 2005–2016. Mapping Fine Particulate Matter, attributable health events, and income levels, we asked: Are the communities with the highest air pollution experiencing the worst health impacts, or are there other factors […]
“A Matter of Air” is an interactive installation about environmental and public health policy. This project was a team effort of Aurelie Barbier, Katrin Bichler, Aron Cohen and Julie McEldoon.
The installation visualizes data from the New York Community Air Survey from 2005–2016. Mapping Fine Particulate Matter, attributable health events, and income levels, we asked: Are the communities with the highest air pollution experiencing the worst health impacts, or are there other factors at play?
The immersive installation allowed the audience to move through an abstraction of NYC and see pollution data mapped around them as tiny light particles. It consists of an array of 42 LED strings – each representing one of New York’s neighborhoods. Each individual LED on the string shows an annual data point. The colors of the LEDs indicate how the data is trending. Hot Spots are pink, Cold Spots are blue.
The installation cycles through five data-sets: Fine Particulate Matter, Asthma in Children, Cardiovascular Events, Respiratory Hospitalizations and Poverty Level. The audience could access these datasets through an interactive panel that also provided more information. What we learned: Air Quality is improving overall. The worst Air Pollution could be found in Midtown / Chelsea between 2009-2014. The South Bronx had similar levels of pollution, but suffered more health consequences. In general, we see a correlation of the neighborhood’s poverty levels and how poor air quality affects the population’s health.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8tb9gvKxfQ&t=21s
Source: Aurelie Barbier, Katrin Bichler, Aron Cohen and Julie McEldoon (2023) A Matter of Air, Visualizing Air Pollution in New York City. (archived version)
Related: Also see our entry 2002 – LED Cubes.