An Introduction
Categories: Facemask
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.
