Do you know how much land London uses to keep up its meat eating habit? How about the amount of land we could save if we showered every other day? Or do you even care?
The Brief
In this project we were asked to raise the visibility of issues around climate change. We worked together with Stephen Emmets, author of the book 10 Billion.
Initally we questioned the attachment we have to our cities and their consumption - we cause so much damage to people and the enviroment, but often it is far removed from our lives and so abstract in our minds.
In trying to pinpoint this apathy, we discovered that most of the damage caused by consumption in cities happens far away, which makes it incomprehensible for the inhabitants.
Interpretation
We focused on London as it is well-known subject matter for us and is the only megacity in the UK.
In order to find a new direction in raising awareness on environmental issues we started with an extensive research phase; mapping and re-mapping the city by its consumption levels (how much land is needed to sustain London) and mapping the complexity of this global problem.
Process
We discovered early in the project that the land needed to support London is larger than the size of England; considering only food, water, energy and waste.
And so our aim became to amplify and underline the severity of the world’s consumption by using London as an example; pulling the hidden land use into reality, leaving behind the figures, which are hard for us to relate to emotively.
Taking data sourced from DEFRA, local Councils, data.gov, NATO and the UN we mapped consumption in London relative to land use. After manipulating these data sets we began creating visualisations.
Many Eyes - Data visualising tool
The visualisations were great from a research perspective but they weren't going to fulfil the brief, in reaching wider aduences with the issues of climate change.
We mapped the land use areas over London and England.
From L to R: Waste; Water; Energy...
Agriculture required for London
The next step was changing and isolating certain variables.
Having this visual comparison was essential to our understanding of how our consumptions appeared in relation to one another.
The importance of this was even more apparent when we started to look at the alternative lifestyles within the sections.
We did this with London's energy usage
…the land needed to feed the people of London...
...and its waste.
Here you can see clearly how much our lifestyle choices impact land use. Improved agriculture follows a basic, mostly vegetarian diet set out by the UN as the minimum required to fulfil a simple nutritious diet.
Progressing the project we developed the visual language into something with more physicality.
We took the concept into a hyper realistic situation, whereby we facilitated each city to have the appropriate land area to meet its consumer demands.
This was achieved by providing every city with its own moon or miniature planet on which they could produce everything needed to sustain the city, in close proximity to the residents, increasing their awareness of the effects of their actions.
The planet acts as a support system for the city, It becomes an entity of its own; something that the city attaches onto and depends on increasingly as global population growth tightens the availability of our resources. We liked the language of the model, but felt that it lacked tangibility and interaction.
The next iteration shows a balloon over each city. Bring the concept down to earth a little, this baloon is connected to live data feeds of goods and services coming in and out of the city, so the size of each city's ballon shrinks and grows with its consumption levels, acting as a monument to consumerism and a constant reminder of our impact on the planet.
The surface area of this balloon represents the amount of land we use to sustain London’s current lifestyle. Using this model, we can then start to manipulate the data and change the variables accordingly to see the direct impact that our lifestyle choices have on the amount of land we need.
This was working really well for us, but how to realistically bring it to the people of London?
Outcome
A Proposal for an Exhibition
A Proposal for an Exhibition
We explored scales within our ideas, shrank the concept down to an exhibition.
In this model, the balloons are attached to helium canisters that are connected to live information feeds detailing the cities’ consumption, which provide immediate comparisons between the cities and what they are consuming.
The model can be manipulated to represent the variables for multiple cities, or for the individual elements of consumption for one city.
It allows comparison to other cities and the problems raised on a global level.
It allows comparison to other cities and the problems raised on a global level.
It can also be controlled via an interactive console where individuals manipulate the data themselves by awnsering simple questions about their lifestyle (what mode of transport do you use most frequently? How much fruit and veg do you eat?).
It allows them to explore and experiment with the model. In this way, the user can see the surface area of the balloon inflate and deflate according to their selective parameters, creating a personal connection which in turn creates a more lasting impression.
The exhibition reduces the abstract data and numbers into a clear and relatable form.
The people in the city never see the impact of their actions and so we have designed a tangible definition of those figures.
