Watch: An artist has created pods to let people sample the pollution in cities around the world
From Sau Paulo to New Delhi, this is what pollution smells like.
Given the deteriorating quality of air we breathe, artist Michael Pinsky decided to put together an exhibition at Somerset House in London, sampling the varying levels of pollution from a number of cities around the world.
He calls them “pollution pods”, which, as the video above shows, are five interlinked geodesic domes, each representing the air quality of a different city. From Tautra (Norway) to London, New Delhi, Beijing and Sao Paulo, each region has its own distinct form of pollution, which the artist has remade, complete with its smell.
Each dome is climactically controlled to mimic the air quality and temperatures from the resective city. The artist used what he calls safe chemicals to recreate the smells. For instance, Pinsky says that London smells of diesel because that’s the primary cause of air pollution. We wonder what New Delhi smells like in his pod.