Smart sculpture monitors air quality
Prana the Dinosaur is an inflatable “smart” sculpture built by the Contemporary Art and Technology class at Cypress College. The design enables the sculpture to monitor and visualize current air quality data of North Orange County, CA.
Prana (”breathing”, the breath of life) is described on Wikipedia as a Sanskrit word that refers to a vital, life-sustaining force of living beings and vital energy in natural processes of the universe. Prana is a central concept in Ayurveda and Yoga where it is believed to flow through a network of fine subtle channels called nadis.
Prana has been programmed to change color in accordance to the current air quality data extracted from airnow.gov, a cross-agency government website. Airnow.gov is dedicated to transmitting U.S. air quality conditions and forecasts. The hope for this project is to inform our school community with specific air quality data and to spark critical dialogue on campus. This sculpture was inspired by the many other air quality related projects studied in the course.
Source: air-dino.info