Through the Looking Glass

It is a collection of six wooden frames with glass mounted in them. The wooden frames can be considered to be windows in 6 different cities and countries of the world. Each piece of glass has been painted with carbon black and lacquer in equally varied amount to represent the different categories of Air Quality Index. For the purpose of simplicity and clarity, the image uploaded shows only three categories: Good, Unhealthy and Hazardous. As on 28th of February, 2020 - Quebec, Canada falls in the 'Good' Category with AQI ranging between 15-25 (Right most in the image), New Delhi, India falls in the 'Unhealthy' Category with AQI ranging between 150-200 (Centre wooden frame in the image) and Johannesburg, South Africa falls in the 'Hazardous' Category with AQI above 440 (Left most wooden frame in the image). The data has been picked from http://waqi.info/. The Air Quality Index is based on measurement of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), Ozone (O3), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) emissions. Most of the stations on the map are monitoring both PM2.5 and PM10 data, but there are few exceptions where only PM10 is available. All measurements are based on hourly readings: For instance, an AQI reported at 8AM means that the measurement was done from 7AM to 8AM. Through this piece I want my audience to feel a certain discomfort. I feel we know that climate change is real but do not know the extent of compromises we’ve made with the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, the melting glaciers, rising temperatures and water levels, etc. I’ve taken one element that of air pollution to highlight the difference in the air quality around the world. The six levels used to define air quality are good (0-50 AQI), Moderate (50-100 AQI), Unhealthy for sensitive groups (100-150 AQI), Unhealthy (150-200 AQI), Very Unhealthy (200-300 AQI), Hazardous (300-500 AQI). The thresholds for each category were developed based on established national air quality standards. Please Note: There is a little glare on the leftmost window.