Nothing says “romance” quite like PM2.5. So says Dutch artist and “social designer” Daan Roosegaarde, who has proposed turning Beijing’s disgusting smog problem into sparkling gems, and setting the smog stones into beautiful gold rings.
“Making tangible and wearable material of the smog is a way of creating awareness,” Roosegaarde said. “By buying or sharing the smog ring you donate 1,000 cubic meters of clean air to the city.”
In collaboration with ENS Europe and professor Bob Ursem, Roosegaarde’s Smog Free Project would use “patented and energy friendly ion technology,” in what will apparently be the world’s largest air purifier. The prospective air filter is set to be a larger and more portable version than those already used in hospitals, and will be used to capture PM2.5 smog at a park in Beijing. Technology is slated to be complete sometime next year. If it works, that Beijing park will have some of the cleanest air in the city.
“By creating the cleanest part of Beijing, you create an experience of how the future will look, what it will feel like,” Roosegaarde said. “People will see all the differences in between the old air and the new air. They can feel it, smell it, and breathe it. This will create an incentive to update the whole city such as electric cars, clean industry, cycling. Our smog project stands as a springboard for other initiatives, to update reality.”
Or, you know, we could all just move to Shanghai.
PHOTOS: Beijing couples do wedding photo shoots wearing gas masks
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