September 12, 2008, 2:46 pm
12 Beanbags for Nine Planets
By Maia Garau
If every person on Earth generated as much CO2 as the average North American, our planet’s carbon emissions would reach nine times the sustainable level — hence Nine Planets Wanted, the title of a striking installation designed by Zago for the United Nations Lobby in New York. The installation marks the launch of the United Nations Development Programme’s One Planet, One Chance campaign on climate change and social inequality.
Manuel Toscano and his team at Zago have taken a thoughtful and provocative approach to visualizing data from this year’s UNDP Human Development Report. Twelve giant bean bags spread throughout the hall capture the comparative emissions of different countries, while offering visitors soft, comfortable seats on which to take it all in. The largest is the one that represents the United States per person per capita yearly emissions — it is 30ft in circumference!
Present at the inauguration, the President of the General Assembly Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann said that the great problems facing humanity need more than words — they need novel means of communication that will enable people to absorb and respond to information in new ways.
The installation runs until October 5th. More information is available at http://nineplanetswanted.org/
