When a body of water is too dirty to get into, the evidence is generally right before your eyes. You can see the swirls of oil on the surface of the water, as well as plastic waste or other rubbish floating along, so you know to search for another place to go in for a dip.

This is not necessarily the case with air pollution, especially if you live in an urban area. This is why Guillaume Slizewicz, a Brussels-based designer, has come up with a clever lamp designed to visually reveal dangerous levels of air pollution.

The lamp is made of brass, glass, and custom 3D-printed pieces which include a microcontroller that is connected to real-time open data on pollution. This controller regulates the lamp’s seven LED lights and determines how much the LEDs are dimmed based on the air pollution measured in the air.

Slizewicz coded the light patterns so that they dim according to how many particles are in the air. If there are more polluting particles, the more the LEDs are dimmed, and the quicker they fade in and out. Slizewicz was inspired by canary birds that were used as signals for coal miners when the air became too toxic to breathe.

This is what brought Slizewicz to name his project the Canari lamp, as he hopes it will raise awareness of air pollution by turning toxicity data into light signals. His objective was to not only inform citizens about the dangers of air pollution but to inspire lifestyle changes based on pollution levels for personal health.

Slizewicz has released the plans and the code for the Canari lamp under an open-source license, complete with a tutorial to guide people should they want to build their own. This first prototype is part of a bigger project on air quality representation supported by creative hub Trakk through its edutainment program focused on bringing together the most innovative minds in science, academia, design, and local businesses.

Source Image: Gillaume Slizewicz Studio