The complete family of three sculptures Nexus was shown in the UBS VIP Lounge at Art Basel in Hong Kong, of which UBS was the Lead Partner (29-31 March 2019).

 

A family of modular sculptures, inspired by nature and technology. The interactive output of the sculpture is powered by a feed of big data from a set of more than 8,000 air quality monitoring stations around the world, and analyzed by UBS Evidence Lab, a specialist research facility within UBS.

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The world Health Organisation has identified air pollution as a “public health emergency” and, as international awareness of the issues has increased air quality is becoming more regulated  “There’s mounting evidence of the damaging long-term effects of air pollution. Whereas most would see air pollution as a local problem, we see it as also having global connotations, and thus is of relevance to markets. Elaine Yan Ling Ng’s sculptures represent both exquisite design work and a form of communication, turning invisible data into something visual and highlighting an important issue, “ said Julie Hudson, Environmental, Social and corporate Governance ( ESG) Analyst at UBS.

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Through the interactive presentations, visitors will be prompted to select air quality data from 71 major cities around the world including Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. Akin to music, lights along the body of the work will display the movement of accumulated data, translated through individually programmed LEDs into an organic flow of light visuals which illustrate how the quality of air has changed in the selected locations over the past two years. Each visitor’s  individual data choice will generate a new virtual cloud which will influence a unique set of kinetic movement to create an individual performance.