Climate Sense

2022-present

Team lead:
Zihao Zhang | Landscape Architecture, CCNY

Collaborator:
Ricardo Toledo-Crow | Next Generation Environmental Sensor Lab (NGENS)

Research Assistants and Alums:
Katlin Labatt-Simon | Architecture, CCNY
Griffin Pollak | Landscape Architecture, CCNY

By interpreting climate change – a “hyperobject” that exceeds human temporal and spatial capacities to comprehend – into relatable and tangible experiences and phenomena, we prototype cybernetic installations that generate discussions and motivate community infrastructures to combat the climate crisis. The project Climate Sense brings together sensing and responsive technologies, physical computation, citizen science, and digital fabrication to construct landscape installations that explore the possibilities of landscape design, digital art, and cybernetic technologies in raising public awareness of climate change and its impact on socio-ecological systems. The installations expand the role of architects and landscape architects in the climate adaptation discourse through material-based practices and community engagement. The installation uses digital sensors to monitor an array of climate indicators – CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, ground ozone level, temperature, and humidity – and translate the data into responsive forms and experiences through light, motion, and sound.

This ongoing project is partly funded by a 2022 PSC-CUNY grant.