Before beginning the design and technical development of Breathing Is Not a Choice, our group carried out an extended period of research to understand the wider environmental, social, and experiential context of air pollution. This early stage was essential in helping us move beyond creating a visually interesting installation toward producing a project grounded in critical thinking, public relevance, and meaningful interaction design.
Why Air Pollution?
We were initially drawn to air pollution because it is both universal and invisible. Every person breathes, yet many people rarely think about the systems that shape the quality of the air around them. Unlike waste or water contamination, polluted air often cannot be immediately seen, making it easier to ignore despite its serious health consequences.
Through our research, we found that air pollution is linked to respiratory disease, cardiovascular illness, reduced life expectancy, and wider environmental damage. However, these impacts are not distributed equally. Urban populations, lower-income communities, and heavily industrialised regions often experience worse air quality than others. This introduced an important theme for our project: environmental inequality.
We became interested not only in pollution itself, but in the question of access. If breathing is necessary for survival, why is clean air still unequally distributed?
Investigating Existing Projects
To understand how artists and designers have previously approached environmental issues, we reviewed a range of speculative design, installation art, and data visualisation projects.
One key reference was The Breathing Game by Rohan Kakad. This project presents air as a limited commodity controlled through competitive systems. We were inspired by how it reframed breathing as something political rather than natural.
Another important precedent was Air of the Anthropocene by Aerocene Foundation. This work uses pollution data to reveal invisible atmospheric conditions through visual forms. It demonstrated how environmental data can become tangible and emotionally engaging.
From these case studies, we recognised two common strategies:
- Making invisible systems visible
- Turning abstract environmental issues into personal experiences
These became guiding principles for our own concept development.
User Experience Research
We also explored how people normally perceive air quality in everyday life. Informal interviews and peer discussions showed that most people only notice air pollution when conditions become extreme—for example, heavy traffic fumes, smoke, or visible haze. In cleaner environments, air is often taken for granted.
This insight was important. It suggested that awareness does not come from data alone, but from bodily sensation. People respond when breathing feels difficult, when smell changes, or when the atmosphere creates discomfort.
As a result, we began shifting our project away from purely screen-based information and toward a multisensory experience that would involve breath, sound, movement, and spatial immersion.
Scientific and Technical Research
To support the concept, we also researched the physiology of breathing and available sensing technologies. We examined how respiratory sensors can detect inhalation and exhalation through pressure change, airflow, or chest movement.
Our early prototypes considered wearable fabric sensors, but research showed these might be intrusive and unreliable during movement. We therefore explored mask-mounted pressure sensors as a more direct and stable method of collecting breath data.
We also studied real-time interaction platforms such as TouchDesigner, which could transform sensor input into dynamic visuals and sound environments. This helped us imagine how visitors’ own breathing could become the central control mechanism of the installation.
Defining the Core Concept
After combining environmental, artistic, user, and technical research, we identified the core idea of the project:
To transform invisible air inequality into a direct bodily experience.
Rather than telling visitors about pollution through facts or statistics, we wanted them to feel how atmosphere changes emotion, comfort, and behaviour. This led to the later development of the passport system, fictional countries, and pollution-based immersive environments.
Reflection on the Research Phase
Looking back, the research stage was one of the most important parts of the project. It prevented us from producing a superficial installation focused only on aesthetics. Instead, it helped us connect interaction design with environmental justice, sensory perception, and social critique.
Personally, I learned that strong design concepts often emerge not from one idea, but from combining multiple forms of research: scientific evidence, cultural references, user behaviour, and technical experimentation.
The pre-research phase gave our final installation depth, direction, and purpose. It transformed the topic of pollution from a distant global issue into something intimate, political, and immediate—something felt with every breath.
