Previously, we wrote about Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde’s incredible vacuum cleaner that can suck urban smog right out of the air, a design which Roosegaarde hopes to have functioning in Beijing by next year. Now the designer is turning that smog vacuumed from the skies of Beijing into rings of soot that you can wear right on your fingers. Each ring comes with either a fake diamond made from soot or a stone with a cube of soot in the center, and Roosegaarde hopes the project will help bring awareness to the issue of air pollution.
We tend to forget that when we are breathing smog we are breathing actual pieces of pollution into our lungs. Roosegaarde says that when he sucks the pollution out of the air, it is strange feeling to hold a bag full of black powder that was just recently floating in the sky. So in order to draw attention to the issue, he wanted to create a tangible work of art made out of that pollution that could create awareness.
Related: Smog-Sucking Electric Vacuum Cleaner Could Combat Beijing Air Pollution
Daan Roosegaarde first became interested in removing smog after living in Beijing, where smog levels are famously high. While the artist says that he realizes that pulling smog from a patch of sky won’t end pollution, he hopes to remind people what fresh air looks and feels like and to remind people to keep fighting for it. His smog project, along with the smog rings, are a small way to further that fight.
Via Fast Company
