Smogalarm
Premiere: October. 13. 2018, Britney, SHAUSPIEL Cologne
Duration: 60 minutesCredits: Conception/direction/video/sound & music: Echo Ho
SMOGALARM Tech-Suits Model 1 prototype designed and manufactured by the collaborative project-label-
SMOGALARM (Echo Ho & Patricia Köllges)
Performers: the Tech-Talker - Echo Ho the runner - Patricia Köllges
the model - Minjung Cho
Smogalarm (2018)
A speculative design fiction series: part one Tech-talk: SMOGALARM Tech-Suits Model 1 prototype in a lecture performance staged as a media event.
Medium: SMOGALARM Tech-Suits Model 1 prototype, pre-produced video clips, live video, fog machine, found footage, sound and music composition, three performers, a running machine, a deck chair, and the book Staying with the Trouble by Donna Haraway.
Introduction to the project
The interdisciplinary art research project „Smogalarm presents a speculative design solution - a model that provocatively addresses the air pollution challenge in the Anthropocene. As a fictional concept, a wearable
design startup based in Cologne, Germany, launched the SMOGALARM Tech-Suits model 1 prototype in the summer of 2018. This innovative medical garment incorporates upcycled filter tape that displays realtime
continuous ambient air quality monitoring, utilising local measurements of PM2.5 and PM10 levels through beta ray attenuation provided by the State Office for Nature, Environment, and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is equipped with a PM2.5 measurement sensor, which, when exposed to particulate matter concentrations above the World Health Organization guideline value of 10μg/m3 and 35% more than 25 μg/m3 (EU directive), automatically stimulates meridian points for the body stress tolerance. The suit provides psychological and physiological relaxation through sonic massage to the wearer. The project explores the evolving relationship between humans, the environment, and technology, questioning whether this solution and progress-oriented narrative remains an unsolvable paradox in the theoretical discourse on these complex themes.
Background
The term „Ozone“ originates from the Greek word „ozein,“ meaning „to smell.“ This interdisciplinary art-research
project explores the historical and ongoing issue of air pollution, tracing its recognition from ancient Greece‘s interest in atmospheric chemistry through the emergence of urban air pollution in the Middle Ages and significant events such as London‘s 1952 smog disaster and Germany‘s 1962 Ruhr area smog. These incidents led to legislative responses like the 1956 Clean Air Act and innovative measures like North Rhine Westphalia‘s smog alarm plan. The narrative of air pollution awareness extends over centuries, leading to modern efforts to mitigate its effects, including public reactions to media portrayals like Wolfgang Petersen‘s 1973 pseudo-documentary „SMOG.“ Human-caused air pollution significantly impacts health, especially in South and East Asia. The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry reports that a substantial portion of the global population is exposed to particulate matter levels above recommended guidelines, contributing to millions of premature deaths annually. However, contemporary movements challenging the environmental status quo face complexities and obstacles in effecting genuine change against entrenched industrial
interests and consumption patterns. This critique underscores the difficulties in influencing the real flows of power within the modern environmental movement. The composition of PM2.5 is complex, comprising both solid and liquid particles, including organic matter, nitrate, sulfate, ammonium salt, carbon, and some metal compounds, many of which are harmful to human health. The Beta Attenuation Monitor (BAM) is a real-time, continuous ambient air quality monitoring device that measures PM2.5 and PM10 levels using beta ray attenuation. It requires filter tape replacements every 2-3 months. It operates by drawing air through a particulate-size selective inlet to collect particles on a filter tape, with data collected hourly to calculate mass concentrations of particulates.