Madrid's air | Nerea Calvillo | TEDxMadrid

Nerea Calvillo is the founder of C+arquitectos, a professional studio that oversees the production of architecture, cartographical systems, research, education and curatorship. In 2008, the studio launched "In The Air," a project that proposes different formats for visualizing air quality, as a tool for civic activism. "In the Air" is made possible through collaborative workshops and academic research. In this talk, Nerea shows us how Madrid breathes through a series of fascinating visualizations.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Historically, Madrid’s air
has been represented by its skies,

from Velázquez, who took
the entire royal court outdoors

to paint their portrait,

to photography nuts who post
their Madrid photos on Flickr.

This is the first image that shows up
when you search "Madrid" on Flickr.

Still, even if this is how
the Madrid sky appears

in our collective imagination,

on a day-to-day basis,

Madrid's sky looks like this

and like this

and like this.

And only those photos you see
in the newspapers now and then,

can actually reveal the bad
quality of air in Madrid.

It makes you wonder:

Why do we know so little
about something like air quality?

And the answer is very simple -

because it's microscopic
and we don't see it.

Thus, the "In The Air" project was born,

with the intention of giving
legitimacy to a system

that forms a part of our city;

a system with which we interact,

that runs our daily lives,

and that has a very close
relationship with our bodies.

The project is a collective effort,

built by a fantastic team
of multidisciplinary collaborators

from all over the world,

and developed through workshops,

like Media Lab Prado in 2008,
the first of such events.

But back to the air.

Allow me to present its actors:

gases like CO2, nitrogen dioxide,
ozone, sulphur dioxide,

or suspended particulates
like rubber, leather, lead...

Ever since Spain
joined the European Union,

Madrid's city council is obligated
to inform the public about air quality.

This is how they presented it in 2007,

and like this for 2008, 2010.

But it makes you wonder:

Could we find a more adequate
way to present the information,

so we could have a better sense
of what's going on with our air?

We found there were two things missing:

geolocalization and the order of events.

So we put together these graphic maps,
which are basically air landscapes.

You can see them in real time
on an interactive web page,

where you can view
all the different components

and navigate the city
from below its airstream.

We can also see what effects
our actions have on air quality,

on both a city scale

and also per 100,000 inhabitants.

We can also identify
where emissions are coming from,

and how they might affect our health.

It's been interesting
to read through the data.

It's allowed us to see
that there's a very close relationship

between what happens in the city,
our own everyday actions,

and what's produced in the air -

what we produce, collectively, in the air.

For example, in the spectacular case
of a New Year's Eve,

when the particulate suspension levels
dramatically increase.

The same happens during soccer games
in Bernabéu Stadium.

The project also examines

how the way in which we transfer
this information to public spaces

can produce different reactions

as well as differences
in the collective dynamics

involved in plazas and public spaces.

So we developed several prototypes.

One of them was this cloud of colored mist

on the facade of Media Lab Prado

which represents the levels
of air pollution by pulsating.

This digital facade allows us to identify
minimally polluted routes.

There are also mobile devices
that help us navigate the city,

orienting us like a sort of aerial compass

while transmitting in real-time,
information about the urban surroundings.

We're currently researching
this "public good,"

as it's been called several times today.

It's intimately linked with our bodies,

and since it can impact the health

of the citizens of Madrid,

all of our bodies are affected by it,

and by the processes of exclusion
that it will eventually produce.

We're also looking at what types
of visual formats are best,

and to what extent a visualization
can motivate, stimulate

or act as an intermediary
for political action,

on both an individual
and collective level.

Let's take a look at how Madrid breathes.

Last inhale.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)