Pollution pods - climate change communication between art, psychology and air research

Disseminating the results from climate science often lacks the necessary response in the general public, actions are seldom taken. The RCN project Climart studied the mechanisms and effects that art can have and finds that art seems to be able to emotionally activate people and fuel motivation to change. As part of the Climart project an artist commission to an international artist lead to the development of an artwork named "pollution pods" which makes the audience experience the effects of air pollution in different cities around the world on the human body. Furthermore, it draws the connection between air pollution in distant and local cities, climate change and consumption in the developed world. The POLUPOD project maximizes the impact of the artwork by professionally implementing it in Trondheim and then taking it on a tour to other cities, thus making it accessible for a much larger audience. Furthermore, it extends the concept with Climate-Art-Science presentation that bring together the artist, the scientists who contributed to the development of the artwork, and members of the public.

Disseminating the results from climate science often lacks the necessary response in the general public, actions are seldom taken. The RCN project Climart studies the mechanisms and effects that art can have and finds that art seems to be able to emotionally activate people and fuel motivation to change. As part of the Climart project an artist commission to an international artist lead to the development of an artwork named "pollution pods" which makes the audience experience the effects of air pollution in different cities around the world on the human body. Furthermore, it draws the connection between air pollution in distant and local cities, climate change and consumption in the developed world. The POLUPOD project maximizes the impact of the artwork by professionally implementing it in three Norwegian cities in a short tour and thus making it accessible for a much larger audience. Furthermore, it extends the concept with Climate-Art-Science workshops that bring together the artist, the scientists that contributed to the development of the artwork, additional climate scientists in each city and members of the public, policymaking, NGOs and other stakeholders. Through this concept, the innovative approach of art-climate-science collaboration is developed further.