New Delhi: British artist Michael Pinsky’s immersive art installation, Pollution Pods, has opened at Elizabeth Quay in Perth, Western Australia, to raise awareness about air pollution and the impact of vehicle emissions on public health.
Presented by the Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia (RAC), the installation allows visitors to experience simulated air quality conditions in five locations: London, New Delhi, São Paulo, Beijing and Tautra, a remote peninsula in Norway.
Experiencing air pollution across five locations
The installation consists of interconnected domes that recreate the climate, visibility and smell of each location. As visitors move between them, they experience changing atmospheric conditions, from the relatively clean air of Norway to the polluted environments of major cities.
Pinsky said the installation was designed to help people understand the effects of air pollution through direct sensory experience.
“Pollution is invisible, but its effects are not. Pollution Pods makes people experience air pollution rather than simply hearing about it,” Pinsky said.
British artist Michael Pinsky worked with scientists and specialist perfumers from International Flavours & Fragrances (IFF) to develop the installation.
Perfumer Avinash Mali created a scent for the New Delhi pod to evoke the city’s pollution, drawing on smells from vehicle emissions, burning wood, agricultural fires and waste. The Norway pod, by contrast, used a fresh pine-forest scent to represent clean air.
However, the pods do not reproduce the exact chemical composition or measured pollution levels of each location.
Also Read: Does air pollution cause dementia? What new studies say on what it does to the brain
Raising awareness about transport emissions
Although Perth generally enjoys good air quality, vehicle emissions remain one of the city’s major air pollution challenges, according to RAC.
The organisation hopes the installation will encourage residents to consider how their everyday travel choices affect the environment.
Visitors can also use an emissions calculator developed by RAC to estimate the emissions generated by their daily commutes and explore ways to reduce their environmental impact.
Pollution Pods has previously been exhibited in cities and locations including New York, Madrid, London, Melbourne, Switzerland and Norway. Its arrival in Perth marks another stop on its international tour.
The installation is open to the public at Elizabeth Quay daily from 11 am to 6 pm until 1 November. Entry is free.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)