Dr Sofia Greaves, Lead Researcher

 

Air pollution, mostly fine particulate matter, is the largest environmental health risk in Europe. Such pollution is distributed by vortices: broadly defined as rotating regions of fluid such as a whirlpool or tornado. It is known that vortices impact pollutant dispersal, air quality and heat propagation in cities, where street surfaces concentrate heat and sky-scrapers create wind tunnels which convey contaminants caused by car use, framing vortices as a pressing research subject relevant to the EU Cities Mission for cleaner air. The key objective of the Vortex project is to advance this research area by bringing artists and scientists together into a collaborative, transdisciplinary enquiry. Vortex is the first known transdisciplinary enquiry into vortices. Transdisciplinary collaborations are at the cutting edge of European R&I strategies, which increasingly emphasize art-science as a means to develop novel research methodologies, avenues and solutions for societal challenges.

 

Vortex will bring together artists, engineers from the OsloMet and the Astronautics Department at the University of Southampton and visualisation specialists from the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics to develop innovative methodologies for representing and understanding how vortical structures impact pollution dispersal in cities. This two-year interdisciplinary project will produce the first cultural history of vortices, an ethnography of art-science collaboration which advances understandings of transdisciplinary innovation, an artwork which enables scientists to study and understand vortices from novel perspectives, arts-based workshops focused on behavioural change, and an exhibition which engages citizens and industry. Arts-based, scientifically informed visualisation techniques developed by Vortex have the potential to promote positive societal engagement with the air as a common good, hence to transform perspectives on mobility regimes and support acceptance of related air quality policies.

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The project will be supervised by Ramis Örlü, Associate Professor in fluid mechanics at the Department of Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical Engineering at OsloMet. Professor Örlü is a leading expert in turbulent flows and state-of-the-art measurement methodologies, and large-scale wind tunnel experiments. I will receive secondary supervision from Professor Kristin Bergaust, artist and Vice Dean of research at the Faculty of Technology, Art and Design at OsloMet, and Prof Christina Vanderwel, the Head of the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Research Group at the University of Southampton.

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The Project is kindly being funded by OsloMet, having been awarded a Seal of Excellence by the MSCA Fellowship Scheme.

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Photograph by Walker Bleakney. Image Van Dyke, Milton. 1982. An Album of Fluid Motion. Stanford CA: The Parabolic Press. p. 49.