The Facemask project, a branch of the OneTrees project in conjunction with Biotech Hobbyist Magazine, is aimed at creating a public, networked visual representation of urban air quality. Air quality is often represented statistically or with arbitrary symbols – a column of numbers tells us the concentration of particulates in our city on a particular day; a weatherperson tells us that today is a red or purple ozone alert day. Information relayed abstractly is difficult to assimilate, question or respond to. But how can air quality be visualized in a concrete manner? While air may be invisible, indicators of urban air quality are everywhere: a miasmatic cloud that obscures your city’s skyline, a particularly brilliant sunset, a white t-shirt turned gray after just a day of wear…

If you have ever worn a disposable facemask for a few days, you may have noticed that the mask eventually became discolored. The goal of this project is to use the discoloration of facemasks as an informal sign of relative air quality by creating a statistically accurate color gradation from white to black, each shade representing the concentration of particulates suspended in the air you breathe.

Once the color gradation system is determined, you will be able to wear a mask whenever you are outside for several days, then hold up a color gradation strip to the mask and match the color of the mask to its nearest shade on the strip, which will be assigned a concentration of pollutants. With this simple test you can find out how polluted the air in your city is. The possibilities of what you could do with this inexpensive, low-tech tool are endless – you could have races with friends in other cities to see whose mask turns black fastest; you could verify the air quality index posted by the EPA by comparing it to your mask; you could save your masks and compare them to find out whether the air quality in your area is getting better or worse. You can actually see the air pollution as it collects on your mask.

The Facemask project will be launched during the OneTrees TwoWheel bike ride/conference this fall. During the two-day bike ride through the San Francisco Bay area, participants will wear disposable filtering facemasks, collecting samples of the particulate residue that accumulates on their masks as they travel from one tree site to another. The facemasks will serve as a focal point to jumpstart discussions about air quality and its effects on urban dwellers.

2. Once you select this link you will be prompted for a username and pass. If you are reading this we can assume that you have logged in with the user name you were given. You will use this same user name and pass to upload content.

3. Once you have logged in you will see a list of all of the blogs that you have access to as a general user. To upload images you want to use the DATAFACE blog.

To post new content select either the name of the blog or the link labeled NEW ENTRY.

4. Once you have selected the DATAFACE blog you will be given the option to create a NEW ENTRY, EDIT ENTRY or UPLOAD FILE.

Select NEW ENTRY from the menu and you will be taken to the individual entry page.

5. There are multiple text fields here that you will need to modilfy to create a new photo entry.

> Under Title give your entry a name.

> Under Primary Category select the most approiate. If none of the categories matches your image, select the ADD NEW CATEGORY link.

If your image falls under multiple categories select ASSIGN MULTIPLE CATEGORIES.

> Under Entry Body you can input the caption for you entry.

6. The next step will be to upload the actual image itself. Select the UPLOAD FILE option from the left hand side of the window.

7. This will open a pop-up window.

The first step is to Choose a File from you local machine to upload. Select the BROWSE button to find the file you want to upload.

NOTE - Before you upload a new file make sure that it is sized and streamlined for the web. ( Still working on the verticle image format. ) The standard size for all our images will be:
520 px wide
343 px high
72 dpi resolution
RGB
jpg or gif file format

> Once you have selected your image use Choose a Destination and Local Archive Path to create a folder where all you images will be saved on the server. You will have to type this in each time you upload.

Type – FACES

8. Once the image has completed its upload the window will refresh with new options.

> Select Show me the HTML

> Select Create a thumbnail for this image and change the width of the thumbnail to 100 px

> Make sure the Constrain Proportions box is selected.

> Select Embedded Image

9. The window will refresh again.

> IMPORTANT - Select and Copy ONLY the file path as illustrated below. DO NOT include the file extension such as JPG or GIF or any of the other code shown.

“http://xdesign.ucsd.edu/mttest/archives/jamba_nyc”

10. Paste the File Path into the Excerptwindow back on you entry page at the bottom.

11. Almost done. Select the SAVE option at the bottom of the window. The entry will now rebuild itself.

12. Now to view the entry as it appears on the archive select VIEW SITE in the menu to left. If all was done proper you image is now added to the archive for all to see.