2010 - 2015

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Blue Sky Day is a portrait of industrialization and climate change. This series encapsulates images of the sky, taken outdoors, and its air quality data from 34 months. Each monthly grid is laid out in a calendar structure, in consecutive order by day, creating accidents of color patterns. Each day portrait integrates air quality index data from daily readings at the bottom of the portrait.

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The color palette of the sky was captured outdoors, in the same Chaoyang District location of Beijing where I resided. These color portraits correspond to their regional air quality readings gathered from the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China. "Blue Sky Days" have an AQI (Air Quality Index) of 100 or less. And daily AQI readings were calculated from several sets of air pollution data. 

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Blue Sky Day initiates conversation from multiple angles. It analyzes how we interpret our relationship with color in nature and how color correlates with data, presenting its patterns and ironies. It's also a collective portrait of a developing country marking a time similar to the industrialization Europe and the US experienced from the 1700’s - 1900’s and similar to what other manufacturing cities are experiencing today. 

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More urgently, Blue Sky Day examines global consumption and how it has contributed to our warming planet. A large percentage of harmful particulate matter comes from manufacturing. This makes us question our unsustainable manufacturing habits and excessive consumption. Without sustainable change, communities will continue to experience more frequent and extreme environmental conditions like polluted skies, rising temperatures, rising waters, drying lands, and raging, forest fires, resulting in displaced communities around the globe. - CYJO