Ice Core Visualization 艺术装置 by Yingri Guan

Ice Core Visualization 艺术装置 by Yingri Guan is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award 铁奖 in 美术与艺术装置设计 Competition Category.

铁美术· 2021

Ice Core Visualization 艺术装置

by Yingri Guan

Client: ARiceStudio

A' Design Award 铁奖 Winner in 美术 Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #105575

Visit Site View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Ice Core Visualization 艺术装置

《冰芯可视化》是一件展现二氧化碳浓度与全球气候之间关系的艺术装置。该装置由八根注入分层凝胶蜡的亚克力管构成，每根管直径8英寸、长3英尺。每一层蜡代表一千年周期的平均数据，整体涵盖过去四十万年的历程。其中一套配色方案以灰度层次呈现二氧化碳含量的变化；另一套方案则以红色代表高温、蓝色代表低温，展现气温的变迁。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 铁奖

Ice Core Visualization 艺术装置是 A' Design Award 铁奖得主，这是授予满足人们对设计精良的创作所期待的专业与工业要求的优良设计的声望认可。铁奖得主展现出其创作者的高超技艺、高度专业化、专家级的理解力和创造能力。预计Ice Core Visualization 艺术装置将成为一件备受推崇、令人钦佩且被珍爱的创作，既实用又创新。这件赢得 A' Design Award 铁奖的设计整合了行业最佳实践，并拥有与专业知识和才华相结合的称职技术特性。Ice Core Visualization 艺术装置因其严谨而受到尊重，旨在提供有助于让世界变得更美好的生活品质改善。

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