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"The Secret Life of..." Revealing Plastic Microfibre Emissions through an Embodied Experience
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This paper describes an interactive public installation called "The Secret Life of…" that let people physically experience airborne microplastic emissions from synthetic clothing through embodied demonstrations and simulations. While the work touches on microplastic pollution awareness, it is primarily an environmental art and design research paper rather than an empirical science study.
Embodied knowledge can help understand environmental changes and foster resilience and engagement with climate change transformations. We present “The Secret Life of…” an interactive experience designed to raise awareness of the embodiment of (airborne) microplastic pollution caused by petroleum-based garments. The experience was shown at the Fashion for Future week in Bolzano (Italy), featuring personal and collective reflections on the materials in garments and an interactive installation simulating microplastic emissions. This paper describes the design process of the interactive experience and initial results that include the feedback collected from the participants and the authors’ reflections. This work in progress adds to research on how experiential curated narratives and embodied interactive experiences can help people relate to data about complex environmental issues.
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Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.