Healing Swings is a social interface to tackle climate change artistically. Climate change is one of the most critical topics for humankind today. Healing Swings is the artist's own concept to address this crucial subject. When viewers play on the swings, electricity is produced as a result of the generator installed in the structure. As electricity is generated, visuals on the LED wall in front of the swings constantly change, representing healing Mother Earth.

Healing Swings is a social interface to tackle climate change artistically. Climate change is one of the most critical topics for humankind today. Healing Swings is the artist's own concept to address this crucial subject. When viewers play on the swings, electricity is produced as a result of the generator installed in the structure. As electricity is generated, visuals on the LED wall in front of the swings constantly change, representing healing Mother Earth. As this work is huge and exhibited in public, spectators also have an opportunity to reflect on this topic. Also, swings would be very suitable for this kind of public interactive art project, as it is easy to see people playing on them from a distance. In addition, it is not that physically demanding to play on a swing, implying another advantage compared to other means. It is commonly said that you must spread the word to stop climate change and activists like Greta Thunberg keep us informed about the situation. However, I think there is something that only art can do. Support by Lorenzo Quinn would be an excellent example: the sculpture of two massive hands rising from the water accurately depicts the threat that we are facing. Healing Swings, in a sense, is a variant of Support as this piece also aims to raise awareness of the same problem.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mJpv-_XnUSMKyr5l69tEEYtoKHS_sq4b/view?usp=share_link

Poster

Details

Team members : Yuma Yanagisawa

Supervisor : Hideaki Ogawa

Descriptions

Technical Concept : Consuming less electricity is one of the well-known ways to stop climate change. However, it is difficult for artists who create digital artwork to obey this rule. This is because they frequently use their workstations and it means they need more electricity than others do. For example, to create a 30-second video piece, they would let their desktop PC render for hours. The necessary energy would be significantly higher than the one for scrolling social media for the same amount of time. Based on my quick search, only limited electricity can be produced through one’s exercise. Therefore, this project does not focus on how much electricity one produces, but instead on whether or not one takes part.

Visual Concept : It is said that climate change contributes to drought. The reason for this is that warmer temperatures reduce surface water. For example, according to a new study, climate change has increased the chances of drought by more than 20 times. As plants are absolutely crucial for humankind, I decided to show eroded soil to clearly present the danger of climate change. However, as a public art piece, I also thought the visual style could be less direct and as a result, monochrome eroded soil is projected on the LED wall when no one is interacting with the artwork. When electricity is generated through active participation, grass is shown as a symbol of nature.

Credits

Yuma Yanagisawa

Yuma Yanagisawa

Yuma Yanagisawa

Yuma Yanagisawa

Yuma Yanagisawa

Yuma Yanagisawa