Ice Core Visualization 藝術裝置 by Yingri Guan

Ice Core Visualization 藝術裝置 by Yingri Guan is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award 鐵獎 in 美術設計 Competition Category.

鐵美術· 2021

Ice Core Visualization 藝術裝置

by Yingri Guan

Client: ARiceStudio

A' Design Award 鐵獎 Winner in 美術 Category

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Verified Award Winner

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Colors

The Design

About Ice Core Visualization 藝術裝置

《冰芯視覺化》係一件展示二氧化碳含量同全球氣候之間關係嘅藝術裝置作品。呢件裝置由八條透明亞加力管組成,管內填滿分層嘅凝膠蠟。每條管直徑八吋,長三呎。每一層蠟代表一千年期間嘅平均數據,總共涵蓋過去四十萬年嘅歷史。裝置運用灰階配色方案來呈現二氧化碳含量嘅變化,另外再用第二套配色方案,以紅色代表高溫、藍色代表低溫,展示溫度嘅變化情況。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 鐵獎

Ice Core Visualization 藝術裝置是 A' Design Award 鐵獎得主，這是授予滿足人們對設計精良的創作所期待的專業與工業要求的優良設計的聲望認可。鐵獎得主展現出其創作者的高超技藝、高度專業化、專家級的理解力和創造能力。預計Ice Core Visualization 藝術裝置將成為一件備受推崇、令人欽佩且被珍愛的創作，既實用又創新。這件贏得 A' Design Award 鐵獎的設計整合了行業最佳實踐，並擁有與專業知識和才華相結合的稱職技術特性。Ice Core Visualization 藝術裝置因其嚴謹而受到尊重，旨在提供有助於讓世界變得更美好的生活品質改善。

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