Prototyping Climate Awarness

By interpreting climate change – a “hyperobject” that exceeds human temporal and spatial capacities to comprehend – into relatable and tangible experiences and phenomena, this landscape installation generates discussions and motivates community infrastructures to combat the climate crisis. The project “Prototyping Climate Awareness” brings together sensing and responsive technologies, physical computation, citizen science, and digital fabrication to construct a landscape installation that explores the possibilities of landscape design, digital art, and cybernetic technologies in raising public awareness of climate change and its impact on socioecological systems. The installation expands the role of architects and landscape architects in the climate adaptation discourse through material-based practices and community engagement. The installation uses digital sensors to monitor an array of climate indicators – CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, ground ozone level, temperature, and humidity – and translate the data into responsive forms and experiences through light, motion, and sound.

Acknowledgement: Some studies are conducted with the UVA Ostanda illuminata and CCUS research group, including Mona El Khafif, Andrew Mondschein, Zihao Zhang, Eric Field, Gaberial Andrade