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Ice Core Visualization Instalacja Artystyczna by Yingri Guan

Ice Core Visualization Instalacja Artystyczna by Yingri Guan is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 Żelazna Nagroda A' Design Award in Sztuki Piękne Competition Category.


ŻelaznaSztuka· 2021

Ice Core Visualization Instalacja Artystyczna

by Yingri Guan

Client: ARiceStudio

Żelazna Nagroda A' Design Award Winner in Sztuka Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #105575

Colors

The Design

About Ice Core Visualization Instalacja Artystyczna

Wizualizacja Rdzenia Lodowego to instalacja artystyczna ukazująca zależność między poziomem dwutlenku węgla a globalnym klimatem. Instalacja składa się z ośmiu akrylowych rur wypełnionych warstwowym woskiem żelowym. Każda rura ma 8 cali średnicy i 3 stopy długości. Każda warstwa wosku reprezentuje uśrednione dane dla okresu tysiąca lat, obejmując łącznie ostatnie czterysta tysięcy lat. Skala szarości ukazuje zmienność stężenia dwutlenku węgla. Druga skala wykorzystuje kolor czerwony dla ciepła i niebieski dla zimna, aby przedstawić zmienność temperatury.

The Recognition

About the Żelazna Nagroda A' Design Award

Ice Core Visualization Instalacja Artystyczna to laureat Żelaznej Nagrody A' Design Award, prestiżowego wyróżnienia przyznawanego dobrym projektom, które spełniają zawodowe i przemysłowe wymagania oczekiwane od dobrze zaprojektowanych dzieł. Laureaci Żelaznej Nagrody wykazują wielką biegłość, wysoką specjalizację, fachowe zrozumienie i zdolności twórcze ich autorów. Ice Core Visualization Instalacja Artystyczna ma być wysoko cenionym, podziwianym i drogim sercu dziełem, które jest praktyczne i innowacyjne. Ten projekt nagrodzony Żelazną Nagrodą A' Design Award integruje najlepsze praktyki branżowe i ma kompetentne cechy techniczne powiązane z wiedzą fachową i talentem. Dzięki starannemu wykonaniu Ice Core Visualization Instalacja Artystyczna cieszy się szacunkiem, a jego zadaniem jest zapewnianie poprawy jakości życia, która pomaga uczynić świat lepszym miejscem.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
Ice Core brings together the aesthetics of layers of ice with the immense amount of weather information core samples contain. It features eight acrylic tubes filled with layered gel wax, with each layer denoting the average data contained within a thousand-year sample.
Dimensions & Packaging
Each ice core tube is 8 inches in diameter and 3 feet in length
Tags
Ice Core, Art, Installation, Visualizations, Generative
Production Technology
First the data set is obtained from NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Below shows the data set used in diagram format based on the Vostok Petit data. Carbon dioxide in comparison of global temperature variation is chosen. Generally carbon dioxide production is related to burning of carbon and other energy consumption activities. While global warming is closely related to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere especially carbon dioxide level.
Design Challenge
I was brainstorming along the line of creating something semi-transparent, which lends close resemblance to original ice cores while giving the flexibility of making it layer by layer. Therefore, the process of making wax candles came in handy. Hence, I melted layers of wax with the measured amount of dye is poured into the tube layer by layer. I divided the acrylic tube into four sections, and each tube represents a hundred thousand years. Then I further divided each tube into a hundred layers. Therefore each layer of the wax represents average data over a thousand years.
Research
A greyscale color scheme depicts the carbon dioxide variation over the last four hundred thousand years. In comparison, a color scheme based on the weather map describes temperature variations. Red is associated with heat; blue indicates freezing temperature. The goal to show temperature variation. When four tubes are displayed side by side, we can see that the variation corresponds. If more carbon dioxide is present in the global environment, the higher the temperature. Inversely, the lighter content indicates a lower carbon dioxide production and therefore followed by a generally colder climate.
Inspiration
Ice cores are long and condensed tubes that are extracted from the extremely cold areas where snow fell and accumulated over the years with minimal melting and eventually compressed to ice sheets. The layers of snow contain rich information about our global climate. For example, dust, ash, pollen, bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances. This project is particularly concerned with carbon dioxide content in the gaseous bubbles trapped inside each layer of ice.
Project Duration
Project started in Buffalo since 2012 and complete in San Francisco Bay Area by 2018
Operation Flow
A very interesting aspect of this making is the tactility of the whole process. I wanted the audience to have a direct correlation to what they see in front of them and appreciate the beauty of the ice core as I have been. Also, it is observed that there are four general cycles in terms of variation of the global climate. Currently, according to the trend, we are moving towards the time period that temperature is predicted to go up. Therefore it lends question to that if global warming is a manmade phenomenon or it is part of the global climate change cycle.
Team Members
Yingri Guan
Image Credits
Photographer Yingri Guan, Variations, 2014

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