I was honoured to be commissioned to transform the Slow the Smoke data into an artwork. While in my day job, I write data stories and help create charts and graphics, I enjoy exploring more unusual ways of working with data. My creative studio I have with Duncan Geere, Loud Numbers, uses a technique called data sonification to turn numbers into music tracks. And I’ve worked with air quality data creatively before – my 2015 project with Stefanie Posavec, Air Transformed, currently exhibited at Bletchley Park, turned air quality data from Sheffield into wearable necklaces and pairs of glasses.
So I was excited by the prospect of turning air quality data into a new sonic artwork, Bristol’s Burning.
KWMC worked with community members living in and around Ashley Ward, in central Bristol, to install low-cost air quality sensors outside their houses. I accessed this data via the Open Data Bristol portal and used it, along with that gathered by Bristol City Council, to create the music track.
I used the data on one kind of pollutant called particulate matter (PM10) from the 14 different sensors in Ashley Ward, over the course of the year from August 1, 2021 to July 31, 2022. As the sensors showed broadly similar readings over time, I took the average reading across all sensors and then the average by month – reducing hundreds of thousands of datapoints to just 12! This revealed that, on the whole, particulate levels are higher in the winter months.
Broadly speaking, air quality deteriorates in the winter in Ashley Ward and improves in the summer. This makes sense, because people tend to drive their cars and light their woodburners more in the winter when it’s cold outside. Also, cold air sinks and traps air pollution near to the ground, especially when there’s little wind (as in January and March 2022).
This broad seasonal pattern is the focus of Bristol’s Burning. There are two main layers to the sonification. First, there’s a nasty-sounding drone that gets louder and harsher as the air gets dirtier in the winter (the data is mapped to the volume and cutoff of a low-pass filter). When the air quality is really bad, this drone gets so loud it dominates everything. And when the air cleans up again in the spring, the drone gets quieter and fades out.
Secondly, a dub track plays at the same time as the drone. I think of this music track as representing the people living in Bristol. When air quality gets really bad in the winter, it’s like the drone is drowning people out and stopping them from living their lives. Which is exactly what air pollution does, even at low concentrations: it makes us sick and stops us living our lives to the full.
Bristol artist T. Relly created the vocals and wrote the lyrics, which add lots of commentary and an invaluable human dimension to the data. We also recorded voices from members of the local community in St. Paul’s. In the track you can hear the names of the months spoken out loud (August, September and so on), like audio labels telling you what point you are at in the year. These were recorded by lots of different people, and I’m really grateful to all those who lent their voices to that.
Also, the points where you hear the bloodcurdling scream? That’s when daily levels of air pollution exceed the danger limit set by the World Health Organization. The scream was made by local children Arianne, Ashti and Astera, who were so loud they almost broke the mic!
I used RI used R Studio to clean, analyse and visualise the data, the Loud Numbers sonification module for the free online modular synthesis program VCV Rack to explore the data sonically and then the final sonification and music production was done in Logic Pro, Apple’s music software.
Listen to the interview with the artists here
Music track and data sonification: Miriam Quick
Lead vocals and lyrics: T. Relly
Recording engineer: Lewis Campbell
Mastering: Sorting Room Studios
Additional vocals: Afric Bruen, Arianne, Ashti, Astera, Helena, Harry McQuaid, Julia Bidoli, Kenya, Lataya
Thanks to: Annali Grimes, Cashell Smith, Duncan Geere, Eduardo Allen, Ella Chedburn, Martha King, Scott Piggott, James Quick, Kate Lindsay, Lucas Sweeney, Rob Bryher, Stephanie Burnham, Steve Crawshaw, Tom Allan, Ujima Radio, Open Data Bristol, opendata.bristol.gov.uk, the people of Ashley Ward and Bristol.
Slow the Smoke had a final event and showcase on Bonfire Night, 5 November 2022 in Bristol, where we showcased all the findings from the Slow the Smoke project through data, citizen science, community voices and art. An exhibition showcasing the different data narratives as interpreted by the community, gave visitors an insight into the project.
The highlight of the evening was the debut of the artist commission, Bristol Burning (A Bonfire Nightmare) accompanied by an animation created by Rediat Abayneh to support the data narrative. The track was followed by a Q&A with both artists Miriam Quick and T. Relly
Listen to the interview with the artists here
Young people designed solutions to air pollution through a game, Minecraft. Collectively the group took actions to reduce the air pollution levels within the game world. By embedding the map of St. Paul’s and St. Werburgh’s within the game, they considered better solutions to transport, heating our homes and urban design.
The Game design was supported with funding from the Parcos Project, a Horizon 2020 funded research project about participatory science.
The team consisted of Dan Tagg, a creative technologist from Wildman and Herring Ltd to support the data narrative within the game, the outreach team at University of West of England Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation Department, who has experience in delivering workshops with young people using Minecraft as a tool and the design the maps in Minecraft by their partner, Atkins.
The Minecraft approach was an excellent mechanism to engage young people in the discussions around air pollution, including understanding the sources, data and solutions. Participants stated that they found the Minecraft workshops “Fun”; they “….learned about air pollution”; and they “….. would play it again”.
KWMC commissioned an artist and composer, Miriam Quick to create a sonic artwork as a response to the data collected from the low cost DIY air quality sensors. Miriam analysed the data and used a process called sonification to convert data into sound to compose the music to Bristol Burning – a dub track, which not only paid homage to the cultural heritage of St.Paul’s, but portrayed the fluctuating air [pollution levels through an unnerving drone sound. Bristol Burning is supported by lyrics and vocals by Bristol hip-hip artist, T. Relly.
The lyrics were based on Relly’s interpretation of the voices of the people in St. Paul’s as captured during the KWMC workshop with the inner-city families.
Vocals for this track were recorded with members from the public during a workshop with the artists, where participants also shared the experience of understanding data through movement and sound.
Read more about how the artist created the sonic artwork: Bristol Burning. Artists’ blog: Miriam Quick about how she made the track.
Listen about the motivations and the process of the artists in this interview between artists and KWMC during a showcase event in November 2022.
The music video to support the track, Bristol Burning was created by filmmakers Rosana Warshawski and Esme Warren, as a celebration of the local heritage of St. Paul’s, and elevating the voices of people living in St. Paul’s.
Listen to the interview with the artists here
Link to Miriam Quick:
Link to: T. Relly
We held 2 workshops over the summer in 2022 with the wider community in Ashley. One of the workshops was focused on families in St. Paul’s in partnership with local organisation Play Wooden CIC. The other workshop was aimed at residents in St. Werburgh’s.
During the workshops, we informed people about the air quality data findings, as well as get an understanding of how local people were affected by air pollution in their neighbourhood. We captured people’s concerns and came up with solutions to try and tackle the issues using a process called the Bristol Approach
– A 6 step framework which supports people to make change in their local communities.
In October 2021 10 Citizen scientists were recruited in the Ashley ward and they built their own low cost DIY air quality sensors
The sensors were installed at their homes.
The Citizen scientists were now part of an international community of people sensing air quality where they live. The data from these sensors are indicative, and they were being analysed and monitored alongside data from high accuracy sensors in the city by Bristol City Council.
The citizen scientists participated in a workshop to help them to make sense of the data collected and to input in the design of the public data platform developed by Bristol City Council.
What we learned from the data:
