'This Place Has Its Own Air' is a data-driven video installation created by Polina Zioga and Catherine M. Weir. The project focuses on the quality of the air we breathe, and the air pollution of our environment, which are inextricably linked.
Air pollutants can spread across long distances and are principally the products of combustion from space heating, power generation or from motor vehicle traffic. They are monitored and regulated, as they can cause both short- and long-term negative health effects. However, despite recent improvements, air pollution remains the biggest environmental threat to health.
The title of the video-installation is based on the seminal memoir 'The Living Mountain' by Nan Shepherd (1893 – 1981), a Scottish writer and poet, and is concerned with the effect of the city's air on the body. It consists of an animated moving image, which expands and contracts, as if breathing, following the human adult respiratory rate. It is created using average hourly readings of the city's pollutants to generate a colour filter, while a particle system appears and overlays different parts of the image, as the concentration of hazardous pollutants rises and falls throughout the day. As a result, the installation aesthetically immerses the viewers, enables them to have a glimpse of the air they breathe, and increases their awareness of the need for reducing environmental pollution.
