Adverse the United States, cities combine art, shadow and education to help people beat heat

Canada Flintridge, California – When the sculptor Bobby Zokail moved to Phoenix in the summer of 2011, heading for half a mile in Arizona State University at a three-digit heat was risky. He learned to find shadow along his route – resting in the breath of a stop fire, dodging the sunbladed sun on every occasion.

“It was pretty crazy,” he recalls.

These experiences influenced one of the last Zokail projects: he was one of the nine artists commissioned this year to bring shadow to the region.

In the United States, cities weave art, science and community commitment to protect people from extreme heat and communicate its risks. While cities adapt to warmer temperatures, driven by climate change caused by humans and face urban heat, the shadow plays an essential role. But communication of heat and safety risks can be difficult. This is where art comes into play. He can get involved, bring hope and even improve how cool someone feels.

Shade “can be much more than functional,” said David Hondula, director of the answer and attenuation of Phoenix. “It can enrich our public spaces.”

In a park in Phoenix, a large awning is held with dazzling color panels. There are painted whimsical creatures called “Alebrijes” of Mexican popular art, and the structure contains a solar energy misting system. In another park, a canopy decorated with colorful drawings uses reflective paint and an ultraviolet resistant canvas.

These are part of the works of temporary public art of Phoenix created with the help of the inhabitants. Everyone was unveiled during a community event with information on shadow and thermal security, as well as free cooling towels and sunscreen.

“The more you know, the more you can recognize the response of your own body, the better you can take care of yourself,” said Carrie Brown, deputy director of the City Art and Culture Office.

These artistic installations are an element of the city plan to extend the shadow. Studies show that the shadow considerably reduces the temperature of the air and the surface and how intensely people feel heat. In a city that has an average over the past decade more than 115 days a year with day temperatures beyond 100 F (38 C), the cooling shade can be saved.

The shadow can be even cooler when combined with beauty. A study in Phoenix, co-written by Hondula, revealed that people have evaluated the aesthetically pleasant bus stops as being cooler than the least beautiful. In another Hong Kong, the results suggested that people had higher heat tolerance when they perceived their environment as calm and beautiful.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a place used to drear winters but not for heat, a project entitled “The shade is social justice” helps the city to transmit dangers of heat and security with creative conceptions. An installation presents hanging flowers that open when temperatures reach 85 F (29 C), which points out to people to cool off with water and shadow, said Claudia Zarazua, director of art and cultural planning of the city.

During a recent afternoon in Phoenix, the doctoral student of Arizona State University, Muhammad Abdullah, launched an advanced mobile weather station called Marty 3D + alongside a Shadow Art Installation in Cielito Park. He measured the temperature, humidity, wind and radiation, then estimated what could happen to the body of a person at the same time in the shade and under the direct light of the sun.

He found that the passage from the sun to the shade dropped the average radiant temperature of around 145 F (63 C) to 88 F (about 31 C). The change did not significantly affect the central temperature, but the skin temperature immediately decreased. When Marty3D + returned to the sun, skin temperature has increased again.

The capacity of Marty 3D + to model and measure how unique the different people are. He can tell the researchers, for example, the temperature of the skin and the nucleus as well as the heart tension in someone who is elderly or on a specific medication, said Jennifer Vanos, an associate professor of the ASU who studies Heat’s impacts on the human body and how to reduce them. This technology allows them to collect data in real time in sometimes risky situations without having an impact on humans. They use their results to make recommendations to the city.

Edith de Guzman, cooperative researcher in extension to the University of California in Los Angeles, has spent years looking for how to increase the shadow of the communities most affected by heat. With colleagues, it also quantified that the shadow can reduce up to 25% of the heat -related deaths to the and up to 66% of heat -related emergency visits. When the opportunity emerged to organize an art exhibition on the shade and which does not have access, she and her husband took it.

“Roots of cool: a celebration of trees and shadow in a warming world” takes visitors to past roles, present and future shadow with textiles, paintings, mixed media, interactive cards, suspended multicolored umbrellas and more. Their goal is not only to highlight the problem, but also from the general public that there are solutions, said Guzman.

An installation in three parts of the artist Leslie K. Gray invites visitors to consider the past, current and future experiences of public transport users in the city. Everyone includes a woman silhouetted who waits for a bus without nuance, a little or many quantities. Bus stop panels include facts on the dangers of heat, the advantages of the shadows and the disappearing access to him.

The exhibition ends with a part with hundreds of postcards with handwritten messages from visitors to the past, present or future. On the other side are drawings showing how they would bring an essential shade to a bus stop.

Behind a card dated September 1, a visitor wrote this message: “Dear people from the past. Take care of others among you. Take care of the Mother Earth where we will be at fault for its destruction and ours. Harvumly – someone (who) looks at the effects of our actions occur.”

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