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69th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Bremen, Germany, 1-5 October 2018.
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IAC-18-E1.9.14
CAPE (Climate Anticipation Personal Environment): Constructing the CAAS-Wardrobe
Sue Fairburn a*, Barbara Imhof b, Jennifer Cunningham c, and Susmita Mohanty d
a Wilson School of Design, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, 5600 Kwantlen Street, Richmond BC
Canada, sue.fairburn@kpu.ca
b LIQUIFER Systems Group, Vienna, Austria, barbara.imhof@liquifer.com
c Ma-tt-er, London, United Kingdom, jennifer@ma-tt-er.org
d Earth2Orbit Analytix, Bangalore, India, susmita@earth2orbit.com
* Corresponding Author
Abstract
One of the greatest risks humanity faces is Climate Change. Evidence on sea-level rise and extreme
weather events supports that climate systems are changing as well as our relationship to climate.
Changes are taking place at the global and national level, on built structures at the city and community
level, yet we construct an understanding of climate relative to our personal context. To anticipate future
urban microclimate patterns we must find ways to imagine and communicate them, using indicators and
modes that are more personally relevant and in real-time. A wardrobe is a personal and portable
environment, a boundary between body and environment, with the capacity to sense and communicate as
a climate indicator. We propose CAPE (Climate Anticipation Personal Environment) as an enhanced
indicator, as a part of a wider project called City As A Spaceship (CAAS) that explores imminent
spaceship parameters, such as climate monitoring and control, as important factors for crewed vehicles
and habitats. CAAS is a metaphor for learning from reciprocities between a spaceship and dense cities -
thus considering resource use, self-sufficiency, constrained spaces, renewable energy and
multiculturalism; a spin-off and spin-in at the same time.
Data is pervasive yet invisible. Air quality is also difficult to see, yet it informs our beliefs that our
environment is habitable. Consider a scenario where an individual wearing CAPE enters a courtroom
holding proceedings on urban air quality. Once inside, the individual’s wardrobe indicates the air is highly
polluted. As perception is primarily visual, those looking around can now see the environmental
contamination, as CAPE communicates the environmental status.
This paper introduces CAPE as a data-rich personal environment and an intelligent subsystem of
CAAS in SMART city settings. It is a practical rather than an aesthetic wardrobe that integrates space
technology beyond its original intent, capturing our surrounding environment - gaseous, thermal, and
perhaps acoustic. It is a wardrobe that exchanges information between inhabitants and their urban
habitats, where air quality, urban congestion, heat islands and extreme thermal fluctuations are an
everyday experience. CAPE gathers data at the personal level and communicates with the commons. As
the speed of Big Data processing approaches and exceeds the speed of living, it has the potential to be
predictive and anticipatory and wardrobe becomes an indicator of urban microclimates.
Keywords: Wardrobe, Climate Change, Sensing, City, Spaceship.
Acronyms/Abbreviations
International Space Station (ISS)
ECLSS (Environmental Control and Life Support
System)
CAAS (City As A Spaceship)
1. Introduction
At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in
December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-
ever universal, legally binding global climate
deal. While governments focus on policies and
built structures, there is an opportunity for local
and collaborative activities to drive local urban
innovation and to construct an understanding of
climate at a personal level. Data is a significant
piece of the urban information that is shaped by
patterns of human connection, comfort and
contribution. Returning data to residents, data
generated through their actions, we enable them
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to raise awareness and be more in sync with
their daily patterns and environment.
To anticipate future urban microclimate
patterns, we must find ways to imagine and
communicate, using indicators and modes that
are more personally relevant and accessible in
real-time. To be alert, to react, to anticipate;
these are the critical behaviours that influence
the way people use things in different
environments. We acknowledge that people are
diverse, conditions are diverse, applications are
diverse, and therefore this necessitates solutions
that are relevant to diversity.
This work references and draws directly from
a relevant project by the same authors; City As A
Spaceship (CAAS): a metaphor for learning from
architectural and design reciprocities between
living on a spaceship and in extreme cities - thus
considering recycling of resources (water, air),
self-sufficiency, constrained spaces, renewable
energy and multiculturalism; a spin-off and spin-
in at the same time. In this paper, the CAAS
themes and design-led approach provide a
broadly framed concept for a wardrobe - Climate
Anticipation Personal Environment (CAPE). At
the core of this construction we consider
Margaux Wililam’s treatise on ‘How to Dress in
our New World’ [1], specifically her final point:
‘#24. We are not talking about comfort here,
we are not advocating fleece. We must always
be a little bit uncomfortable. We are, are we
not, part of this world? We have to be alert
here. We can’t get too comfortable. As they
say, if you are going to go anywhere, you
mustn’t get too comfortable.’
CAPE addresses issues critically with a
focus on wearable technology to monitor our
discomfort with the environment on our home
planet - Spaceship Earth. It proposes to draw
from a ‘data stew’ of ambient information,
satellite data, drone data, wearables data,
and other ancillary data relevant to personal
comfort to create a protective skin that
communicates.
1.1 The City As A Spaceship
The challenges we face are global and
demand considered actions, actions that may be
provoked by visualizing the state of our current
environment. This paper aims to raise
consciousness and accelerate actions in our
bureaucratized world, with an approach
described in these key themes:
- Cities: Urban migration and increased
densification are resulting in cities which
operate at scales approaching country and
state in terms of economy, control, power
and politics. With increasing digital
technology integrated into smart urban
environments, the belief that logic, systems
and order are central is countered by the
realisation that people make cities and
design should reflect their behaviours and
patterns of use.
- Technology: While It is a tool to gather and
analyze data to generate ‘actionable
intelligence’ that can be used to make our
cities more habitable and sustainable; it is
also all pervasive and impacts privacy and
allows manipulation of humans and society
in dangerous ways. The advances made in
Cloud Computing, Machine Learning (ML),
Deep Learning, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
can be leveraged in creative ways for social
and environmental well-being.
- Environment: This is a complex challenge
with multiple offending activities, including;
pollution, deforestation, landfills abundance,
excessive construction, resource depletion,
material permanence and people demanding
greater access to limited resources.
- Society: With increasing migration, more
inequality with a greater divide between rich
and poor, and an aging population, the
‘equilibrium’ we used to know no longer
exists. In its place are radicalized views that
are challenging democracy and the notion of
the civic harmony.
At the core of CAAS is a focus on the
curation of the technological spin-offs from
space design and how they could integrate into
our daily lives. A spaceship in its’ ideal state is a
fully functioning biosphere where resources are
carefully re-created; water and air are recycled
and put back into the loop. An ideal spaceship is
a technologized habitat that includes biological
systems, leaves no trace, offers life-support
systems in a fully closed-loop, and is powered by
renewable energy. CAAS’s approach focuses on
the key themes of cities, technology,
environment, and society – thus drawing the
paradigm of spaceships – onto cities (Figure 1).
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Figure. 1. Patterned gestures of City As A Spaceship
(CAAS) (Credit J. Cunningham).
While science fact is central to CAAS,
science fiction is often inherent in the work
CAAS identifies and references alongside the
former, and is visible in the creative outputs
(figure 2). Critical theorist Donna Haraway [2]
offers that the ‘SF’ acronym is comprised of
many interweaving concepts, including
speculative fabulation, science fact, science
fiction, string figures and so far. The inclusion of
science fact and speculative fabulation within the
same SF figure allows the heuristic and factual
to coalesce, a position relevant to CAAS and of
interest to CAPE in its intention to enable the
communication of big (quantitative) data
alongside small (qualitative) data.
1.2 Climate Change and the City
In the wake of extreme temperatures
affecting many cities in the Northern Hemisphere
in summer 2018, Environmental Health
Specialist Kathleen McLean, offered that "people
definitely become physiologically adapted to the
temperatures in the place that they live in…" [3]
The context of this comment was whether there
is a need to revise the public warning system.
Earth’s climate is gradually warming and with
the ongoing global migration trend, from rural to
urban areas, climate change and cities pose a
challenge to our future comfort and survival. In
April 2017, the Mauna Loa Observatory recorded
its first ever carbon dioxide reading in excess of
410 parts per million (ppm), an atmospheric
condition that will cause greater heat trapping
and an increased rate of climate change [4].
Climate Central, an independent organization of
leading scientists and communicators of the
impact of climate change, also note that Planet
Earth has seen a run of 627 months in a row of
above-normal heat, and the greatest climate
impact is seen in cities. The evidence supports
that the established warming trends, global and
local, are likely to have a substantial and
negative effect on the thermal comfort [5], health
[6], and well-being of many urban dwellers.
Fig. 2. CAAS Conceptual Collage of Earth Space
Reciprocities (Credit B. Imhof).
Mills et al [7] argue there is a need to
understand the relationships and links between
global, regional and local climate and he
stresses that the ‘form and function of the city
modifies the overlying atmosphere, creating a
distinctive climate.’ One such local reference is
urban heat islands (UHI); a distinctive climate
that encompasses areas in the centers of cities,
areas that are substantially warmer than the
surrounding peri-urban area and countryside.
The impact of climate change in cities
becomes more complex when air quality factors
are added to urban heat complexes: heat
accumulation, sun/shadow and wind effects.
Climate scientists work to model and visualise
certain climate characteristics, and their
relationship to land use, and in doing so, they
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strive to access useful meteorological
information to inform the placing of interventions.
These interventions are conveyed through
‘recommendation maps’, a merging of climate
science and urban design, sometimes called
‘climatopes’ [8], as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. A ‘climatope’ of climate-responsive
recommendations merging climate science and urban
design (Credit S. Lenzholzer)
Access to information at various scales is
now publicly available through online mapping
tools, such as Mapbox, a tool offering local and
comparative global climate [9]. It offers climate
projections for a given location, and for those
locales with comparable climate. It also brings
climate knowledge to the commons and enables
urban residents to access information for specific
interventions, such as ‘cooling centers’ in times
of extreme heat, and warming shelters in times
of extreme cold. This combination of linked
information and interventions begins to empower
citizens to access climate data in a manner
enabling agency and comfort.
1.3 Big Data: Sensing (Remote and Personal):
The world is one giant dataset that includes
us. We carry with us through the city – mobile
phones, wireless nodes, computing power, and
sensor platforms – which all generate data that
we contribute to and consume. The Internet of
Things (IoT) and a human are really not so
different, as our bodies continuously scan,
sense, process, and react – and most of the time
we are unaware of this happening. We emit
signals and we convey information to others.
The urban environment is one part of this and it
is the true ‘cloud’ that we inhabit as we move
from locations, transit through spaces and
navigate our surroundings.
The use of data in agriculture and healthcare
is well established, as is the relevance to law,
sociology, marketing, design, energy
management, and all areas of natural and man-
made sciences [10]. However remote sensing,
monitoring and the Near Real Time (NRT)
tracking and processing remain a challenge for
all applications. For systems where response
time is crucial, data must be processed in a
timely manner, such as for the application of
driverless cars – which use three-dimensional
maps (known) alongside sensors that detect
shapes and distinguish between a child on a
bicycle and a plastic bottle rolling along a
sidewalk (unknown). The challenge is in reacting
appropriately to all problems posed by an ever-
changing and unpredictable environment, that is,
the unknown is becoming more complex and
more unknown.
Big Data is characterised by volume, variety
and velocity, the 3V’s [11]. Veracity was added
to reference the importance of the quality of the
data collected, as accuracy and reliability are
essential for statistical analysis. Data generated
by sensors, society and sources is often
unstructured and collected without experimental
design or a research question – yet we are
interested in the information to be gained from
this ‘stew of data’. The ability to search for
patterns provides significant potential in the area
of Big Data analytics. Further, with sentiment
analysis we can go beyond samples to
populations and address data with more
complexity.
Holmes expanded the character of Big Data
to include vulnerability, value and viability, and
central to communication of information, is
visualisation [10]. Visualising information is seen
as a powerful method of supporting
understanding, Tufte [12] comments: “we
envision information in order to reason about,
communicate, document and preserve that
knowledge” and the recent emergence of the
“infographic” as researchers and designers seek
to make “Big Data” available to a larger
population and decouple accessibility from
privilege, indicates acceptance of the power of
information visualisation [13]. CAAS explores
interpretations of the ‘city’ as a ‘spaceship’
metaphor using graphical representations of
information [14]. CAPE is also interested in the
reciprocity of data, but between the population
and the person, thereby aiming to make data
more personal and personally relevant.
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We are data obsessed and information
compulsed – personal data drives our sense of
understanding of self and informs our actions
and wireless-enabled wearable technologies
track our personal metrics. According to IBM, by
2020, medical data is expected to double every
seventy-three days (p.68 [10]). With sensors
worn, we monitor our bodies; our skin
responses, our movements while we sleep,
exercise, commute and work, and the beats of
our heart. Sensors also monitor our position and
our interactions with others and our environment.
Within a city context, we constantly share our
observations of what we see, and what we do
with others, and we make our location visible.
We use the data to alert others to problems,
such as traffic and the unexpected, such as
dangerous routes. Equally, we alert others to
opportunities; such as a preferred route (when
cherry blossoms are in bloom), or an unexpected
concert. Digital consultant Dan Hill offers this
statement on the impact of digital technology at
the city level and addresses the emergent
opportunity for data to be collective yet relevant,
spatially immersive yet mobile, expressive and
on the person; ‘…the way the street feels may
soon be defined by what cannot be seen by the
naked eye..the street is immersed in a twitching,
pulsing cloud of data. This is over and above the
well established electromagnetic radiation,
crackles of static, radio waves…this is a new
kind of data, collective and individual,
aggregated and discrete, open and closed,
constantly logging impossibly detailed patterns
of behaviour. The behaviour of the street.’ [15]
Recognising this compulsion that drives us to
consume more and more data, we realise the
need to question the meaning of data. What are
the scenarios we wish to identify that bring
relevance to terrestrial data? How might we
inform a connection with data, with data that is
relevant to self and to others – that informs the
connections essential to making data relevant -
data that creates and supports the ‘habitable
smart city’? The SENSEable City Lab [16] is a
project that embodies an architectural approach
‘that senses and responds’ – integrating Internet
of Things (IoT) technologies into the built
environment and into mobile platforms, such as
urban vehicles; a data rich approach.
Messeri [17] questioned how "place" shapes
scientific practice in her project called ‘Placing
outer space’, which addresses the physical
places occupied by researchers, and more
importantly it considers the places they
cognitively and culturally create. “I emphasized
the salience of place by positioning it as a
product, not a precursor, of scientific work. The
planetary scientists with whom I interacted gain
a greater understanding of what they study by
transforming planets from objects to places. I
suggest that the methods they employ to do so -
visualizing, inhabiting, mapping, and narrating -
are prominent in planetary science precisely
because they foster place-making.
Data is used extensively as ‘training data’ to
construct models for predicting future misses.
The Statistician George Box wrote ‘all models
are wrong, but some are useful’ [18]. It is not
about exact representation of the world about us,
as a good model serves as a good picture on
which to base predictions and draw conclusion,
but there is an opportunity for big data and
science to work together, alongside society and
design, to observe and acknowledge the
patterns of society and suggest meaningful
predictions of situations so that we are better
prepared to survive.
1.4 Civic Climate; Wardrobes and Sensing the
Commons
‘The reliability of a piece of apparel as an
environmental mediator is a measure of the
relative uncertainty of the wearer and the
climate itself.’ [19]
Clothing serves as the intermediary between
our skin, our receptors and the external
environment. While what we wear is an aesthetic
choice, it is also informed by the immediate
climate bubbles. Some choose textiles for a
given a climate, those that reflect heat or are
woven with fibres that ease air movement and
facilitate evaporation. Others dress without
regard for climate, instead sensing the
environment and using data to inform their
actions which when seeking a technologically
modified space notifies them of the nearest air-
conditioned coffee shop [20].
The version of future clothing shown in Fig
4.1 conveys clothing as provocation; as a
‘floating, automated comfort pod’ where the
wearer is completely unencumbered. The pod
allows them the ability to control their
environmental temperature, activate tension
relieving devices, and in the event of
approaching hazards, float the user clear from
danger [21]. The retrospective work of
Archigram, specifically Michael Webb and two of
his conceptual expressions also enables
consideration of wardrobe as provocation. ‘The
Suitaloon’ (figure 4.2) acts as apparel that
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reflects our experience and relationship to the
climates we inhabit, and the ‘Cushicle’, as a
mobile urban environmental device [22]. These
expressions are wearables, proximal to the
body’s skin and serve as enclosure; as a volume
in which climate can be controlled and regulated.
However, they serve as examples that are more
of a spaceship than a city.
Fig 4.1 (top) and 4.2 (bottom). Clothing as
provocation: a portable and protective environment
(Body Covering, in Watkins Dunne 2015) and the
‘Suitaloon’ (Credit, Archigram).
We ‘make sense’ of our living and working
spaces using a series of Wi-Fi-connected
sensors to monitor environments through data,
which can measure factors such as
temperature, CO2 concentration, and the status
of rooms occupied and not occupied. The
information sends instructions to products and
services within the building – why? – for comfort,
to reduce energy demands and because we can.
This can contribute to individual or group-based
‘environmental bubbles’. The systems learn our
daily routines and usage patterns, even
preferences – so that the living and working
spaces can be adapted accordingly over time.
Data informs our wardrobe choices, our activity
plans, and where to go and not to go in a city.
As we consider data in the context of a
wardrobe, what are the environmental sensor
technologies that gather the data that are
essential to survival in terrestrial and extra-
terrestrial settings?
The “We Can” project shown in Fig. 5
proposes a visual narrative as a way of
conveying data, mapping, and human activity
and endeavours in the city [23]. There are
innumerable cloud-based tools that aggregate
data for the use of governments, industry, and
entertainment. But there is a gap in how we
understand the environment that our bodies are
situated in and mediate through.
Figure. 5 Data Visualisation from the “We Can”
project.
Hannah and Selin [19] propose that apparel
offers the means to comprehend today’s
environmental crisis. Their project ‘A Year
Without A Winter’ offers provocative visuals
alongside a narrative that harnesses the
scientific knowledge of climate change, in the
hopes of motivating ‘adequate political,
economic and technological responses’. Of
interest, is their positioning of climate as a ‘lived
abstraction’. While some reference the global
concept of climate, they reference the ancient
concept of ‘Klima’ and adopt the language of
agency whereby climate ‘refers to all the
changes in the atmosphere which sensibly affect
our organs’ and influence ‘the feelings and
mental conditions of men.’ Their approach
extends the understanding of climate beyond the
scientific reliance on data analysis and modeling
to the need to understand the collaborative
building of narrative alongside the individual
capturing of data.
Forensic Architecture (FA) is a form of
investigative practice which uses architecture as
an optical device when looking further into state
violence and human rights violations. FA utilises
data gathered through new evidentiary methods
that are both top-down as well as bottom-up [24].
Bricolages of audio, visual and textual reflections
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are gathered from social media platforms,
satellite imagery, and materials sourced and
leaked through hacks and recordings in order to
weave together a post-real-time narrative. Their
practice oscillates between critical reflections
and calculated interventions. Of interest is their
new forensis in which "civil society groups use a
variety of scientific and aesthetic means
coproduce and present evidence in the pursuit of
public accountability” [ibid]. Big data and
fabulations piece together narratives that have
occurred in order to reveal the truth surrounding
injustices within society.
1.5 Anticipation: Climate, Society and the
Person
Anticipation, as recognised by the
geographer Ben Anderson [25] is comprised by
a series of styles - how futures spoken about in
the present perpetuate how we think about them;
practices - how futures are made present
through modes of affect, thought objects and
materiality and; logics - how futures are enacted
in the present through methods of preemption,
preparation and mitigation. Within anticipatory
practice Anderson [ibid] argues it can be broken
down into one of three categories : calculating
futures, imagining futures or performing futures.
These boundaries are less clear with those
whose work is focussed on design forecasting
and extrapolation practices.
Adams and colleagues write that
"anticipation itself becomes the affective state
that is lived and felt by those dwelling within this
compressed and forecastable time, binding
collectivities of nation, class or globe" [26].
Anticipation as practice, style and logic is
acknowledged as an affective state of the
present. It is a lived condition shared by
societies. This survivalist state draws together
notions of collective imagination and affect. By
understanding imagination to be a
knowledgeable condition, "a frame of mind that
prepares someone to do something" [27], it
takes on an active, affective role in the present.
Affect can be considered from the perspective of
the individual and society, and therefore so can
imagination. Marina Garcés, in her article
'Honesty with the Real', writes about the notion
of being 'affective' which is in essence letting go
of one’s subjectivity [28]. It is then important to
consider how a citizen becomes 'affective'.
In a recent interview Anab Jain, of
speculative design studio Superflux, spoke of the
importance of imagination in relation to their
work [29]. This was not their own imagination but
the imagination of those confronted by their
works, which query the entangled landscapes of
technology, culture, society and the
environment. By materially articulating and
probing collective thought individuals have the
opportunity to critically rethink the world we may
live in by reclaiming their imagination. Donna
Haraway [2, 30] helps us to reframe what
speculation could mean for design through one
of the terms emergent from her idiosyncratic
acronym - ‘SF’. Speculative when used in
conjunction with fabulation becomes more
grounded. Fabulation is the making of fables
hence fabulation is the making of worlds.
Haraway used fabulation for two reasons, firstly
because 'speculative narratives' are an existent
critical literary genre and secondly due to its’
everyday quality and she wanted to ensure the
narrative aspect was tied to quotidian storytelling
practices.
'Worlding' has been present in the
developing iterations of Dunne and Raby's
practice from critical design to speculative
design and now as designed realities [31]. The
narrative quality is fundamental in design work
which aims to be mass communicated as
opposed to mass produced. As forms of critical
activism the work of Dunne and Raby, and
Superflux use fact and fiction to anticipate what
is to come.
Where anticipation is inherently tied to the
present, speculation exists a little further from
the now. Matt Ward argues that the speculative
trajectory that design has followed needs to
change and redirect itself along a route of care
[32]. Critiques surrounding speculative design
argue about the accessibility of this narrative to
the everyday person. Where speculative design
tends towards provocations, dialogues of care
enable design to be accessible and mobile
through a humanitarian lens. With care at the
focus, there is the ability for design to work in
localised settings - where people are more than
bystanders of the ‘what-could-be’ and instead
actors in their possible worlds this is a position
that informs and inspires CAPE.
2. Methodology
CAAS research serves as the platform from
which CAPE emerged, and as such, the
research methodology of CAAS informed the
research methodology of CAPE.
2.1 CAAS Methodology
The CAAS methodology is immersed in the
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broad field of Design Research. According to
Malika Bose [33], Associate Professor at the
Penn State University, design processes are
similar to a critical analysis as undergone in
scientific work. It is this goal-oriented problem
solving and the ability to channel information,
which furthers the project or research question
towards the theme and focus of the project.
Additionally, it is about the evaluation of data
through creative means. Research by design:
taking design or case studies for research
analysis. Design by research: taking research
results as a basis for design-oriented outputs.
The CAAS design research approach involves
locational scenarios and infographics, which are
composed to deliver the analysis of the work,
from which insights are drawn to add to the
discourse within a given area, such as the
design of environments.
2.2 CAPE Methodology
The CAPE methodology adopts aspects of
the CAAS’ methodology; research by design and
design by research; and further informs the
approach by assembling the ‘SF acronym’ of
Donna Haraway with the framework of Forensic
Architecture. This combination of conduits
enables CAPE to consider the hidden systems,
intangible fabulations and connections
underpinning society and the environment in the
everyday. As previously noted, fabulations
enable speculation to critically express itself in
the everyday, much like the science facts and
patterns of data which are in a constant flux of
change. Forensic Architecture gathers
fragments of data from disparate sources
assembling tales and truths from evidence that
tie together in its patterns. As Forensic
Architecture reveals injustices within society
CAPE hopes to elucidate injustices within
climate. Where we use climate as the analytic
device, they use architecture.
The presentation of ‘data’ is demonstrated
through visuals, and provocations, both in raw
image, enhanced through experiences of
inhabiting and narrating (figure 6). Alongside this
is the creation of operative models that not only
represent but also 'do things'. Spatial and non-
spatial models provide a theoretical framework
to what may have happened as well as having
the capacity to be predictive. In order to be
effective and affective they need to be calibrated
with the physical phenomena they wish to
represent; this is the aim of CAPE, not only to
recognise but also to act, react and 'affect'
without the prophetic qualities inherent to
predictions. Just as Forensic Architecture claims
to be a form of “architectural intelligence” CAPE
is a form of “material intelligence” similarly
grounded in an evidence based approach.
Fig.6. The stages of CAPE design research
methodology (credit Jennifer Cunningham)
The CAPE evidence base includes a curated
set of four case studies. Figure 7 is a visual
representation of the case studies using the
CAAS patterned gestures of cities, technology,
environment, and society, as previously seen
(Figure 1). They were selected, analysed and
are presented in an order moving from
contained, low-cost monitoring technology (3.1),
to technology that expands into the environment
for citizen-sensing (3.2) and earth observation
(3.3), leading to technology that integrates into
the environment and society in extra-terrestrial
settings (3.4).
Fig. 7. Visual representation of the CAPE case studies
progressing from contained technology and (left)
across to technology integrated and exchanging with
the environment and societies (right). (credit Jennifer
Cunningham)
3. Case Studies
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The four case studies progress through the
considerations of scale, data, application and
relevance. In referencing scale, each case study
was analyzed for its’ setting and geography (i.e.
person, building, neighbourhood, city, region,
country, planet). With regards to data, the focus
was on the complexity and the integrity of the
source data; the types of key data and ancillary
data; and the transmission, collection, and
analysis of these data. The application and
accessibility of the data addresses how the
information is presented - whether in raw format,
visual, or narrative. Lastly, there is the factor of
relevance, which is included to convey whether
the intervention outlined in the case study is of
private or public relevance i.e. whether it is of
benefit to organisations, to society, or to an
individual.
3.1 Personal and wearable ‘low-tech’ monitoring
in urban environments - Air Quality in New Delhi.
Air quality in New Delhi is consistently found
to be in the severe/severe plus category.
Government findings indicate that prolonged
exposure to the level of pollution is hazardous
even for healthy persons, and especially for
children [34].
This case study was drawn from an interview
with S. Sambyal and S. Mudgal, Senior
Research Associates from the Centre for
Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi
based non-profit think tank for environmental
research and advocacy [35].
Scale: A group of citizens were assigned to
each carry a portable monitoring machine for 24
hours to assess each person’s exposure to real-
time pollution in relation to the background
ambient levels monitored by the Delhi Pollution
Control monitoring stations. To capture data on
air pollution at the building, neighbourhood, and
city-scale, a CSE Research Associate wore one
of the machines in a backpack while commuting
in New Delhi (Rohini to Vayusenabad); “I carried
it from here, in Delhi, to my home in Rohini,
which is about 40 km away...through the metro,
through the bus stations, through a car, through
a car with and without air conditioning... just
trying to experiment and trying to peek into that
bag again and again to see what is my exposure
to Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 and 2.10 or
basically air pollution.” [ibid] As part of the same
intervention, the backpack was also worn into a
Delhi courtroom during a hearing on an air
pollution monitoring case.
Data: THe CSE backpack contained state-
of-the-art instrumentation - a TSI DustTrak DRX
Aerosol Monitor 8533 system designed to
simultaneously measure PM1, PM2.5 and
PM2.10. The monitor was portable, battery-
powered, and carried in a padded backpack to
minimise instrument tilt and vibration. Data-
logging included real-time aerosol mass
readings in the immediate environment of the
sensors [36]. There was no ancillary data. The
data wasn’t transmitted and therefore it was a
unique, real-time monitoring exercise.
Application and accessibility of
information: In the high court setting, the data
was processed and displayed in real time for the
purpose of provocation, evidence and advocacy.
The impact of the visible data intervention was
immediate; “...the high court judges were baffled
when they realised that even the air they are
breathing in the courtroom is also highly
polluted... Now they are like ‘we want to live in a
bubble and we want at least some kind of air
pollution control systems installed for the
courtroom.’ [35]
The cumulative data from the 24-hour
commuting exercise was processed and
visualised with corresponding transportation
modes (Figure 8) to illustrate particulate matter
levels versus background ambient levels over
the course of a a 24-hour day. The information is
publically available in a report on CSE’s website.
Fig. 8. Exposure to Particulate Matter (PM) PM2.5 by
Travel mode vis a vis background ambient levels
(Image Credit: CSE, 2016)
Private or Public Relevance: The
outcomes of this air quality research were
published as a white paper and informed policy
as a result of a November 2016 Supreme Court
hearing [36]. This research now informs public
information systems through a practice whereby
daily air quality is based on the Air Quality Index
(AQI) and relevant health advisories.
3.2 "Who makes decisions about the quality of
air we breathe?" - Citizen Sensing through
Luftdaten
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'Luftdaten' is an open source data platform
that crowd-sources information for the
comparison of changes in environmental factors
[37]. The platform consists of a series of
stationary, self-built sensors which communicate
with a central database tracking and visualising
real-time data about the surrounding air quality.
Data transmitted by individual air quality
monitors (AQM) continuously update the online
Luftdaten map. Hexagonal shapes overlay a
map of the world; their shade a visual
representation of the surrounding particulate
matter, enabling individuals to see their changing
levels across time and space.
Scale: The focus of Luftdaten is local and city
scale, though the initiative is also spreading
globally. It began from the realisation that a local
station presented the highest measured
concentrations of particulate matter pollutants.
Just as this observation in Germany provoked
citizens to query their surrounding environment,
controversial plans to erect an incinerator in
northeast Scotland led a local to query "who
makes decisions about the quality of air we
breathe?" This provoked her to initiate a DIY air
quality workshop held at a nearby public library.
The group was comprised of individuals
concerned about the environment, interested in
citizen science and the real-life application of
data, and general hobbyists. Although available
to witness on a global scale, the individual wants
behind this hyper-localised data collection vary
from person to person, emphasising the potential
of Luftdaten within citizen science. As an open-
source platform the uptake of the system is
happening at various scales globally.
Within urban and rural centres the sensors
are built and maintained by citizens, hence
differing rates in adoption. In areas with multiple
sensors it is possible to compare levels of PM
and Nitrogen Oxide (NO𝗑) depending on the
scale at which you view the map. Each device
has an identity which is linked to the location it
has been registered at by its owner, and if it is
moved individuals are expected to notify
Luftdaten so the map can be updated. There is
the capacity to programme the device to pick up
incorrect signals, thus making the data and
corresponding visuals inaccurate. Device
hacking in areas with few air quality monitors
could affect people's perceptions of their
surrounding environments and this could be
utilised as a tactic to disempower action.
Data: Lufdaten began as a citizen science
project which aimed to make the data about our
surrounding environment (such as temperature,
relative humidity and air pollution) visible and
accessible to the wider public. Luftdaten
intended to provide a visual measurement of air
quality, recognise the effect of high traffic volume
on surrounding air, and track the exposure of
particulate matter and nitrogen oxide in
residential areas through map based
visualisations of the most recent measurements.
Users can decide whether their Air Quality
Monitor (AQM) collects the data of particulate
matter, or that of NO𝗑. Data is translated into
graphs which track the levels of PM10, PM2.5
and NO𝗑 over the past 24 hours. This is enabled
by three component boards, SDS011 Fine Dust
Sensor and DHT22, Temperature and Humidity -
which are protected by an outside casing. Users
are encouraged to collaboratively modify and
improve upon Luftdaten software through their
Github [38].
Application and Accessibility of
information: Through multiple devices, citizens
and cities are able to see what is happening and
what has happened in their surroundings (figure
9). The question then arises - once the
visualised data has been processed by an
individual, at what point do they act? Since the
workshop only a handful of the completed
devices are visible on the map. This negligence
questions the suggested simplicity of installation
and the reality that people would have to acquire
the parts, prepare the materials and code the
boards before assembling and installing the
AQM. The build and installation of the monitors
is the first step to enabling individuals to
understand their surrounding climate through
Luftdaten's online visualisations, but the
individual is still required to act.
Figure 9. 'Luftdaten' open source data platform
screenshot showing distribution of sensors. (Image
source Luftdaten, 2018)
Private or Public Relevance: Even though
citizen-built, the information gathered reflects
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only the building. The current stationary aspect
ties data to place and not person. Luftdaten’s
objectives are to gather air quality data on-the-
go through the development of a mobile solution
for simultaneously visualising individualised
routes on the map; a form of personalised air
quality tracking. To enhance the system Luften
wish to allow public entry and grading of
symptoms common to areas with high levels of
PM and NO𝗑. The documentation of coughing,
wheezing, sneezing and itchy eyes contributes
to a "geographic mapping of symptom frequency
and intensity". This link between personal health
and mobility, while comparable to health
wearables, the critical difference Luftdaten offers
is that the shared map created enables a
collective knowledge of the surroundings.
Luftdaten is for the people and not just for the
person.
3.3: Earth Observation (EO): the Big Data and
Global applications of C40 and E2O
There are many examples of larger scale
initiatives that approximate earth observation.
Two examples of such initiatives are C40, a city
collective out of London who act globally, and
Earth2Orbit Analytix (E2O), a Bangalore-based
Earth Observation (EO) analytics company. Both
initiatives are driven by Big Data and global
applications. This case study is drawn from
E2O’s operating model and a recent C40 event
held in Bangalore in July 2018 where 14 cities
from the C40 Air Quality Network participated,
including London [39].
Scale: Operating at the city and regional
level, E2O is developing predictive analytics
models for applications at various scales which
relate to urban air quality and habitability,
agriculture, water security, renewable energy,
and insurance. Use cases range from estimating
crop acreage, to mapping urban heat islands or
tree cover for cities, and identifying viable
rooftops for solar power harvesting or rooftop
horticulture.
During a panel discussion at the C40
Bangalore event, where E2O was also in
attendance, Elliot Treharne, Air Quality Manager
at the Mayor of London's Office said in addition
to the traditional ground stations, his city is
debating whether to gather air quality data from
mobile sensors, inexpensive ground sensors and
wearables in the near future [ibid]. London, in
partnership with C40, plans to trial a new
£750,000 cutting-edge street-by-street sensor air
quality monitoring system which will be used to
analyse harmful pollution in up to 1,000 toxic hot
spots across the city including schools,
hospitals, construction sites and busy roads.
Such Near Real Time (NRT), high-resolution
"change detection" at a city or continental scale
can also be applied at a hyperlocal or individual
scale.
Data: E2O combines EO data (from
satellites, such as Landsat, Sentinel, Cartosat,
Resourcesat, etc.) with other relevant data to
deliver actionable intelligence for social,
business and environmental impact. The most
common air pollutants include COx, NOx, SO2,
ground-level ozone (O3), lead and particulate
matter (PM10 and PM2.5). Primary data sources
for air pollution monitoring are fixed ground
stations with automatic equipment at breathing
height that take readings every 15 minutes. As
per the 2016 London Air Quality Network
(LAQN) annual report [40], the network
consisted of: 67 stations that monitor NO2 data,
14 stations that monitor PM2.5, 53 that stations
capture PM10 data, 5 sites that monitor SO2,
and 18 sites that monitor Ozone (mostly placed
in rural areas as NO2 skews the readings of
other pollutants in urban areas).
Application and Accessibility of climatic
information: To implement regulatory measures
and raise public awareness, accurate real-time
air quality monitoring at high granularity is
needed. Conventional methods calculate Air
Quality Index (AQI) at an Area of Interest (AOI)
by interpolating the measurements from fixed
ground stations. With the C40 system, the
pollutants being monitored can be displayed on
a map that can be viewed by entering a
postcode. Satellite data can complement this
method.
In the past, data from a NASA satellite -
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) - was used to map air pollution [41].
However MODIS’ low spatial resolution (3 km)
only delivers insights, not actionable intelligence.
In response to this limitation, E2O, is proposing
a hybrid solution that uses composite satellite
data from 3 different satellites - INSAT-3D
(Indian), MODIS (American), and Sentinel
(European) to improve the temporal and spatial
resolutions of AQI. The solution includes a
Machine Learning (ML) model that will use
Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data from these
satellites combined with weather data to monitor
particulate matter. This model will be calibrated
using particulate matter data from ground
stations: the result would be high resolution
actionable intelligence on air quality.
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Private or Public Relevance: Air pollution
has direct implications for public health and
productivity, and the particulate matter is visible.
(figure 10).
Fig. 10. Accumulated particulate matter on Delhi
foliage in Khirkee village. (Credit: S Fairburn)
In the case of India, where 1.3 Billion people
reside, the urban air pollution quality indicators
growth rate is alarming. India has 14 of the top
20 most polluting cities in the world. A recent
study [42] revealed that air pollution was a
significant contributor to 80,665 premature
deaths of adults aged over 30 years in Mumbai
and Delhi in 2015. In economic terms, air
pollution cost the two cities US$ 10.66 billion in
2015 or about 0.71% of the country’s gross
domestic product.
Results from London’s C40 air quality sensor
monitoring trial will be used to better target
policies, and to engage citizens, and this
approach will be shared with Bengaluru and
other cities in the new C40 Air Quality Network.
A new global study [43] confirmed a link
between diabetes and air pollution (PM2.5) and
estimated that 14% of all diabetes cases in the
world in 2016 can be attributed to air pollution.
With the study aggregating past global research
on diabetes and air pollution, it devised a model
to estimate diabetes risk based on the level of
pollution. Using the Global Burden of Disease
study, it found that 8.2 million years of healthy
life were lost globally in 2016 to pollution-linked
diabetes. There is an urgent need for city level
air pollution monitoring and this will require a
cloud of shared data from ground stations,
satellites and mobile devices including
wearables.
3.4 Extraterrestrial Data sensing and monitoring:
the person and their environment in Space
Humans are fragile creatures and in relation
to some extremophile microbes. We can only
live in a very narrow defined environment, within
a precisely defined quality of air, and range of
temperature and atmospheric pressure. We
need oxygen (O2) which only makes 20% of our
terrestrial atmosphere and we release carbon
dioxide that fuels Earth’s plant life. To sustain
human life outside the Earth’s atmosphere, Earth
conditions need to be replicated, and for this
there are extensive controls in place on the ISS
and in personal space suits. These systems not
only exemplify telemetry and technology that
integrates into the environment and society in
extra-terrestrial settings but are also of
significant relevance to future terrestrial settings.
Scale: As intelligent environments, they are
building, neighbourhood, region, city, country
and planet all contained in one. The scale of
living is intelligent, closely monitored and highly
controlled. As a pressurized living environment,
the ISS operates under normal air pressure
(101.3 kPa = 14.7 psi); the same as at sea level
on Earth, thereby mimicking an Earthly
environment as a shared habitat and a wearable
environment [44]. The ISS has monitors and
sensors for O2, partial O2 pressure, Carbon
Dioxide (CO2), radiation, microbial and fungal
bacterial growth (per manual swiping), volatile
organic compounds, humidity, temperature and
noise. Figure 11 illustrates the on-orbit
Environmental Control and Life Support System
(ECLSS), a complex set of technologies and
equipment necessary to maintain life within a
spacecraft such as the ISS or for surface
habitats.
Figure 11. On-Orbit ISS ECLSS Hardware Distribution
as of February 2010 (Images: Courtesy of NASA).
At human scale, spacesuits represent a
tight-fitting biosphere, a microclimate around a
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human body exposed to the very extreme
environment of space (temperature and pressure
extremes). While different suits are designed to
address different environmental contexts: Extra-
Vehicular Activity (EVA), Intra-Vehicular Activity
(IVA), Surface, and Zero-g, each suit houses a
Portable Life Support System (PLSS) providing a
pressure environment, oxygen, a mediate
temperature (cooling), water and a possibility to
release liquids [45]. The Extra Mobility Unit
(EMU) space suit (Figure 12) used for
spacewalks, allows the astronaut to manually
control their internal environment and to sustain
their basic physiological needs through the
PLSS, in addition to containing extensive
telemetry that is monitored remotely.
Data: To ensure the safety and habitability of
the ISS volume, the environmental data
monitoring is continuous and data collection is
constantly streamed, in situ and remotely to
Mission Control (i.e. not public). For example, a
variety of O2 sensors are in place: including two
units containing twelve amperometric O2 sensors
in the Flux Probe Experiment (FIPEX)
experiment [46] a specific Oxygen Control
System (OCS) in the Electromagnetic Levitator
(EML) facility and multi-gas analysers distributed
throughout the station. Overall, the so-called Air
Contamination Control (ACC) sits within the
ECLSS and monitors the concentration of trace
contaminants from the cabin air that controls
partial pressures of O2, CO2, hydrogen,
methane, nitrogen and water vapour [44].
Figure 12. Astronaut Sunita Williams in the EMU
space suit (without helmet) (Credit Robert Markowitz)
There is a loss of natural convection on the
ISS, due to the unique microgravity environment,
therefore artificial ventilation is needed to avoid
harmful CO2 pockets that can occur when
astronauts breathe out. Since the atmospheric
environment on ISS is fragile, CO2 sensors are
everywhere in the station and even integrated
into clothing [47]. ISS cabin air velocity is
maintained at 10 to 40 feet per minute with a
relative humidity of about 60%. As a semi-closed
loop system, the ECLSS reclaims water vapour
and sweat, but it requires High Efficiency
Particulate Air (HEPA) filters to keep harmful
vapours out of the breathing atmosphere.
Microbial growth, both bacterial and fungal,
are found in space habitats and transports,
especially where the extreme external
temperature changes meet the surface of the
modules, therefore systems such as E-Nose
[46], a portable sensor system which is able to
detect in situ bio-contamination, are essential.
Airborne potentially harmful volatile organic
compounds (VOC) (i.e., ethanol, methanol and
2-propanol) are also monitored and analyzed
using a gas chromatograph and ion mobility
spectrometer [48]. Thermally, the ISS
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environment offers a comfortable medium
temperature around 20 °C (range: 18-26°C), but
the Active Thermal Control System (ACTS) is
critical in keeping the station livable and enabling
important scientific equipment to conduct the
microgravity research that is the station’s
primary reason for being [ibid].
Humans living and working in space are
monitored directly on the body. Since a space
suit is like a mini-spaceship, sensors in the
body/suit environment include O2, CO2, humidity,
respiration, heart rate, and metabolic rates (pH
and oxygen levels in the blood). The data is
transferred to an onboard integrated network for
analysis and feedback if required. Requirements
for all space suit sensors are that they must be
highly sensitive, minimally invasive, operate in
near-real time, and easily repairable or
replaceable. The system must also be compact,
able to function independent of gravity and
temperature fluctuations, low power and require
minimal human interaction [49].
Application and Accessibility of climatic
information: Spacecraft and spacesuits provide
an abundance of system status telemetry. The
data is monitored in real time using text or
graphical displays that incorporate limit checking
and trend analysis. Ground personnel at mission
control constantly look for anomalies to detect
changes and support decision making. The
corresponding data is archived to allow for
further analysis [49]. New mission control data
visualisation systems, such as Open Mission
Control Technologies (Open MCT) are evolving
that can ‘...display streaming and historical data,
imagery, timelines, procedures and other data
visualizations, all in one place...’ with a goal to
achieve improved mobile support and better
synchronisation of data across platforms [50].
Private or Public Relevance: There are
single sensors, multiple sensors (combination of
a variety of sensors in one apparatus), and
sensors as substantial part of control loop
equipment onboard the ISS (e.g. as part of the
overall ECLSS) [46] While some sensors are
related to crew and station health, others provide
specific measurements in research facilities and
to dedicated experiments. The general data
pathway for extra-terrestrial monitoring and
control is between the space-based occupant
and mission control, thus privacy is managed via
a system that ensures that the environment
remains entirely habitable for all occupants.
4. CAPE as a Concept in constructing the
CAAS Wardrobe
By evaluating the boundaries between body
and the environment, a wardrobe - a personal
and portable habitat - can serve as climate
indicator. The case studies conveyed that
telemetry and spaceship parameters, such as
climate monitoring and control, are important
factors for crewed habitats. From these
terrestrial and extraterrestrial perspectives we
propose CAPE as a concept both at the scale of
personal and global relevance.
CAPE, as a system concept can curate
sensor data on a city or neighbourhood scale
bringing in potentially billions of datasets
generated by millions of sensor variants. These
sensors can be embedded into wearables,
automobiles, bicycles, urban furniture, urban
lighting fixtures, buildings, etc. The data from
these sensors can be collated, cleaned, storied
using the IoT devices and can then be analysed
using Big Data Analytics. Sensor datasets
representing almost any physical-world attributes
and readings can be ingested.
CAPE is about wearing information in a way
that the passerby senses the exchange and
understands what you have seen, where you
have been and hence, what they are moving
into. Like a delayed mirror, CAPE assists your
mind, allowing you to sense where you are
going. It is not a case of changing what one
wears to move into this new space but instead
about having knowledge of what you are moving
into. To ascertain a visual understanding of the
parameters of CAPE a series of bricolages were
stitched together (figure 13).
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Figure 13. A bricolage of CAPE influences (Credit J.
Cunningham)
The concept of anticipation is core to CAPE.
When defining anticipation, Anderson [25] draws
a distinction between calculating, imagining and
performance. We recognise these as
interdependent and we propose that anticipation
should take into consideration shifting
modalities, scales and materials. When these
anticipatory practices overlap this gives rise to
the fourth dimension - communication (figure
14).
In addition to anticipation, CAPE proposes to
shift the dialogue from speculation to care to
allow for more localised approaches focussed on
the present. Speculation follows Donna
Haraway’s pairings with fabulation and fiction
whilst recognising how CAPE has a grounding in
science fact. We consider the relationships
surrounding and emerging from anticipation -
affect as a subjective state for the individuals in
a commons, care as a local way to consider the
human, survival as a state of preparation and
speculation as a critique of the possible.
Figure 14. First four gestures of the CAPE alphabet.
(Credit J. Cunningham)
The relationships at play in the CAPE
framework are visualised in Figure 15 as
overlays, confrontations, and questions. If
speculation is understood as being future
focussed, the present-day applications invited by
anticipation seem more relevant to be applied to
CAPE, a wearable climate indicator. If
anticipation is an affective state, then it can be
understood as a quartet of performance,
calculation, imagination and communication, all
of which can be applied at various scales of
understanding. CAPE gathers and translates
both quantitative and qualitative data to establish
a space for co-owned narratives. These
narratives are not restricted to words. The
ground-up and top-down gathering methods
have the capacity to be predictive, as apparel
that reflects our experience and relationship to
the climates we inhabit. The circular
visualisations are comprised of separate
fragments of big and small data. This modular
system is similar to Anouk Beckers’ critical
dressing development [51] that requires the
wearer to piece together separate pieces. The
engagement requested by the parts creates both
an active wearer and an interchangeable
approach to clothe oneself. The individual
anticipatory qualities of CAPE - performance,
calculation, imagination and communication - are
overlaid by the patterned gestures that make up
CAAS - cities, technology, environment, and
society (as shown earlier in Figure 1). Being
worn by a digital avatar whose reality has been
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Figure. 15. CAPE Framework (Credit J. Cunningham)
queried, due to her insertion into more-than-
human scenarios, provokes an evaluation of the
boundaries between the body, surrounding
bodies and environment. The backdrops of an
uber city and a National Park enable CAPE to be
understood in contrasting environments of
development and preservation, of the built
environment and surrounding ecosystems.
CAPE is interchangeable. The affective
wearer is considerate, challenged and navigating
an objective critical space during what becomes
a routine activity. By overlaying modular
wearables over a narrative mapping it is possible
to understand the body in relation to these
spaces and collected data streams. The data
collected and distributed by CAPE is composed
of wild facts which have the ability to destabilise
narratives. When society co-produces this
evidence, CAPE materialises possible and
actual ways for humans to attune to climate for
public benefit and more sustainable future
urbanism. This message corresponds with
Tomas Saraceno's “aerocene urbanism” [52]
stimulating CAPE towards the capacity of
imagination in foresight and the ability to engage
global communities locally.
5. Discussion
In recognising our desire to anticipate our
environment, to understand climate at a local
scale, and the urgency of such information, we
acknowledge that the unknown is becoming
more complex. Living in space requires the
constant monitoring of data, the accumulated
confirmation of what is safe and what is not.
Having drawn inspiration and evidence from the
narrowly defined environment of the ISS, there is
appreciation for the complexities of streaming
and displaying data, imagery, and the
synchronisation across machine platforms. To
be alert, to react, to anticipate; these are the
critical behaviours that influence the way people
use things in terrestrial and extraterrestrial
environments.
CAPE is worn – it is wardrobe. Like a coat,
like a shirt, like a shoe, like a sensor – it is
external to our body. It is wardrobe as sensor,
but not for our consumption, but as indicator of
our accumulated bubbles for others. The
amalgamation of our shifting position through the
environment – a sampling of each minute
environmental bubble we pass through. CAPE is
the real time visualisation of accumulated motion
– motion of manus and machine – displayed for
the benefit of those we greet, meet and pass by.
By viewing the information we wear, wearers can
make nuanced changes to their routes, compare
the information with past experience, understand
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what is to come in its immediacy and anticipate
what may come after.
While static, we interact with our environment,
we affect our surroundings, we create the layer
of warm air, we raise the humidity as we emit
moisture, heat and off gas. Our wardrobe is an
intermediary; it is comfort, it can be part of the
bubble and, it can shield the environment. But
we are not singular beings, we move in groups,
we exchange with others and in doing so we
alter our immediate environments in multiples.
Anticipatory qualities overlap and develop,
patterned gestures exchange with one another.
While in motion, we become part of the
environment and it becomes difficult to
distinguish our contributions with the
contributions of others as our bubbles
intermingle, mesh and influence each other.
CAPE is about the collective and the individual,
aggregated and discrete.
6. Conclusions
This paper was a step into the theory and
context of CAPE. The methods and definitions
embedded within the work of Forensic
Architecture and Donna Haraway allow CAPE as
'material intelligence' to confirm itself as
grounded in an evidence-based approach
through science fact, speculative fabulation and
societal fictions. Thus, diagnostic and predictive
analytics using small data and big data can be
applied to humans and human collectives in
creative ways to inform them about the
parameters of their immediate environment/s
and to mitigate harmful climatic conditions.
Speculation is understood as being future
focussed, thus the present-day applications
invited by anticipation are relevant to CAPE as
climate indicator. With anticipation as an
affective state, CAPE applies the quartet of
performance, calculation, imagination and
communication to various scales of
understanding. Shifting the dialogue from
speculation to care allows for more localised
approaches focussed on the present. Since
CAPE has a grounding in science fact, it is
pertinent that care becomes a local way to
consider the human, with survival as a state of
preparation.
The next step is to explore the practice of
CAPE by generating exercises in remote
sensing, monitoring and processing data and
exploring visualisations as wearable climate
dialogues. We will seek ways to collect,
aggregate, integrate, analyse and curate,
anonymously enabling us to not only recognise,
but to act, react, and ‘affect’ insights and
actionable climate intelligence.
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