Bristol Approach
Air quality sensing (2017)
Bristol Approach is a citizen-sensing project in east Bristol from Knowle West Media Centre. My role was to design and lead a series of workshops about air quality data collected by Bristol Open Data. I designed workshops that invited taxi drivers, cyclists, and young people from a school near a busy road to engage with data in playful ways through using improvisation games, and I tested ways to bring the body into the discussion. I also designed and made the cases for the sensor hardware, which are currently on trial.
Collaborators: KWMC (Martha King, Zoe Banks Gross, Jess Linginton, Dot Baker), Bristol City Council, Ben Gaster from UWE, Kev Kirkland, Bristol Taxi Drivers, Easton Community Centre (and local cyclists), Bannerman Road school
Based on discussion and feedback with groups of taxi drivers, cyclists, and school children from east Bristol we designed “ladybird” sensor cases that could fix to your bag when walking or cycling, or attached to the car to collect data on levels of Nitrogen Dioxide and Particulate matter.
Young people designed cases, and learned about air qulity data in their area. They monitored sensors in the school and reflected on this through keeping a “data diary”
Workshops with taxi drivers and cyclists in Easton were geared around discussion on the effects of air quality.
We used a breath sensor I designed to visualise breathing, and think about how air quality relates to us and our bodies.
