This Project

During my residency at Tianjin Western Art Museum in China, I visited five other nearby cities (Beijing, Tangshan, Qianan, Xingtai, and Handan) considered to be among China’s most polluted. Shocked by scenes of massive steel factories, power plants, smoggy streets, and impacted cultural traditions, I extensively documented my experiences by taking photos and video clips, writing down conversations, and collecting Air Quality Index (AQI) reports on the cities I visited.

Through the use of the data collected from China and gesture recognition technology, this interactive design project aims to foster a greater awareness of environmental crisis and cultural changes in industrial China. This work was also the result of my in-depth investigation into user-centered design approaches and related technologies.

—Yuanliang Sun