Should we keep waiting for the wind to clean the air?

3 min readMay 27, 2021

The quality of air in Beijing highly depends on the wind condition. The goal of this project was to invite individuals to think about the impacts they have on the environment.

Air pollution in Beijing

Air pollution has grown to become a boiling issue in China and poses a severe threat to public health. Based on my observation, the smog prevalent in Beijing is subjected to an interesting phenomenon — it very often undergoes sharp changes over short amounts of time.

It is a well established fact that air pollution problems need a long time to be completely solved. Therefore, most people could only accept this contaminated air as a result of the city’s rapid industrialization.

Should we just wait for the wind to have a better air quality for a short period of time?

Introducing “Waiting for wind”

“Waiting for wind” is an interactive installation based on the air pollution problem in Beijing. It provides the audience a fun experience to change air quality on the screen by blowing into the prototype.

About exhibition

I organised an exhibition on “Waiting for wind” where I invited people to come and experience the installation. The exhibition used projection to show the effects of the sky. I placed a game card next to the device, inviting people to play games to increase their sense of participation.

Results

In the exhibition, initially people felt a sense of unease because of the extremely serious air pollution shown on the screen. Later, they began to blow air to the installation and then observed the screen. As the haze on the screen gradually faded away, the audience felt the significant changes in the sky before and after blowing. They said the exhibition gave them a unique experience to interact with the smog.