In the current context of ecological crisis, air’s toxicity—a milieu that is felt but invisible—is a growing issue. Particulate matter and dust generated by transport, construction, or heating have significant ecosystem and health impacts. While metabolic processes such as breathing underline the porous boundaries between industrial production, the living, and its environment, this research-creation project examines the material, spatiotemporal and socio-environmental aspects of air pollution along the Metropolitan Expressway in Montreal.
Through the experimentation of bio-flexible membranes, scaffolds, and speculative objects that measure air pollution and filter particulate matter, the project induces new sensory, aesthetic, and critical relationships with urban atmospheres, and reorients neglected materials into new ecologies of practice.
This project is funded by the Fonds de recherche de Québec (Société et culture). The research team consists of Alice Jarry, Brice Ammar-Khodja, Jean-Michael Celerier, Jacqui Beaumon, Asa Perlman, Philippe Vandal, and Ariane Plante in collaboration with Ville de Montréal and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. Images by Asa Perlman, Jacqui Beaumont, Alice Jarry, and Gia Zozula.