Counter-attacking Pollution in Three Aerial Acts

Air pollution is one of the most significant factors to address when making connections between climate crisis and globalisation. The often-invisible gas emissions (carbon, nitrogen and sulphur dioxides) from cities around the world demonstrate that a large part of anthropogenic fallout takes place not just in the landscape and oceans, but also in the air around us, in what we breathe in every day but frequently overlook. Accordingly, this article investigates three artistic/sociological/architectural projects that establish relations within the ‘Capitalocene’ to identify and combat the causes and harmful effects of air pollution in Los Angeles, Douala, London and Madrid. Analysis of 'Public Smog', 'Citizen Sense' and 'In the Air' considers the earth’s atmosphere above these urban and sub-urban communities as a site where philosophical New Materialism can be revealed and explored. A key aim for the article is to recognise a transversal relationality among actants that operates – or performs – on ecological, economic, and political levels, simultaneously.