Unit 2: Positions through triangulating 1 – Week 2
Last week I narrowed down my extensive research on climate change to the issue of asthma triggered by air pollution, discussing and researching it in relation to the human lung. As an asthmatic, I know and have personally experienced the pain of not being able to breathe properly during an attack. This week I have made good progress and response in my studio-based experiment. Through feedback, brainstorming and gathering more relevant information, I have narrowed down the focus of my exploration again – the sound of breathing, the frequency of breathing of asthmatics – and tried to visualise the sound data I have collected as a way of developing a more in-depth open-ended work. What‘s interesting, we had a tutorial on ’silent crits‘, inviting students from other groups to observe our work without any introduction or explanation.
Enquiry
How to visualise the breathing sounds of asthma patients?
How can visualising breathing aid in reevaluating asthma patients and raising awareness about the hazards of environmental pollution?
What are the possibilities between sound and two-dimensional forms?
Based on my enquiry, I started to collect my breathing sounds throughout the day as an asthmatic, sampling them every 2 hours as a source of data for the experiment.
Studio-based experiments
Sound recordings8 a.m.10 a.m.10 p.m.12 a.m.
Based on my recent reflection and exploration, I have become more certain about my work and position. I have started learning TouchDesigner and am attempting to visualise the sounds of asthma/breathing difficulties/shortness of breath.
Process in TouchDesignerExercise 1Waveform bookExercise 2Exercise 3Exercise 4What’s next?
Feedback & References
4′33″, John Cage, 1952The piece consists of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed. This was music for John Cage. And unlike compositions designed to make the outside world fall away, here was a music that, when it engaged you, made the present world open up like a lotus blossoming in stop-motion photography. It was all very much in keeping with Cage’s Zen world view, which emphasized the power of unmediated experience and direct perception of what Cage called the “isness” of life.
Feedback from other group members
Book of life, GiogialupiData can be used to describe the details of our daily lives, revealing the hidden patterns that make us who we are. The designer has explored her own data in Book of Life, a new artist book created for the Moleskine Foundation. Using iconic Moleskine notebooks, she tell her story through data represented by a series of colorful stitches, one for each day of her life so far.Plastic Air, Giogialupi, 2021Plastic Air is a web-based, interactive experience that vivified a type of pollution that most people don’t even know exists: airborne microplastic deposition, the result of ever-increasing global plastic production and consumption. The experience provides a lens through which to “see” and to explore the invisible plastic particles that are ever-present in the atmosphere around us, and to consider the impact they are having on the environment and our health.Bruises — The Data We Don’t See, Giorgialupi, 2017Clinical records alone hardly capture the impact the illness of a child has on a family. This is how we used music and art to understand and communicate the information that was missing. Can a data visualization evoke empathy and activate us at an emotional level, and not only at a cognitive one? Can looking at a data visualization make you feel part of a story of someone’s life?Shopping in Jail, Shaman Basar, 2013 Waves, DancePalacios Studio
https://leviathan-cycle.com/information/
Leviathan is an ambitious multi-year interdisciplinary project that looks at the key issue of our day: how do we understand the intersection between climate change, migration and mental health in our shared ecosystems? Also I think the website design of Leviathan is very interesting and creative.
