What streams of data go unnoticed, what flows of cause and effect are sensed and obscured, measured and felt? What would happen if we threw data into the air, what shape would it form, what words would fall? How might we imagine a different type of informatic stream? The film sketch that results from these questions attempts to re-stream air pollution causes and effects. The chemical elements of particulate matter, the products that contribute to it; health impacts, how people sense and notice pollution events, invisible cartographies of the social, political, and cultural swept along by the transboundary nature of air.

During our studio process we were in dialogue with Professor Jennifer Gabrys (University of Cambridge) about her project Citizen Sense. These conversations enabled us to understand how participants in her research sense, monitor and communicate pollution events in their local environment. Questions arose such as: who writes the narrative, who is the expert, who makes the science and data? Out of these questions we facilitated a series of speculative writing workshops with scientists, artists, researchers and the general public; to think-with particulate matter and to co-construct knowledge across disciplines and expertise.

Film credit

Studio film sketch, Sense, work in progress