Knitting the Air Exhibition

What does the air we breathe look like?

Air pollution affects all of us, but it is difficult to see, feel or understand. We might know that pollution is harmful to our health, but a number on a graph can still feel abstract. How do we connect data about air quality with the air we breathe every day?

Knitting the Air offers a different way of seeing it.

In Poplar, east London, a community-led project, founded by Caroline Murray, transformed a year of local air quality data into a 13-metre knitted textile. More than 130 knitters contributed over 5,000 hours of knitting, turning thousands of individual data points into something physical, colourful and collective.

Each knitted square represents a day, with colours showing hourly levels of nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5. Together, the squares reveal how air quality changes over time.

But the power of the project isn't just the finished artwork. It is what happens when data becomes something people can make, touch, discuss and interpret together.

From numbers to something you can hold

Knitting the Air uses readings from Breathe London community programme sensors (funded by Clean Air Fund and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and delivered by Imperial College London and The Social Innovation Partnership) in Poplar. Rather than asking residents to interpret technical charts, the project gives them a pattern, some wool and a pair of needles. They become part of the process of turning data into a story about their neighbourhood.

This creates a very different relationship with evidence. The data is no longer simply telling people something about their community; they are spending time with it, asking questions about it and connecting it with their own experiences.

A chart might tell us that pollution is high. A knitted panel can prompt a different question: Why does this part of the pattern look like this? What was happening here? How does this relate to my experience of this place?

Those questions create space for curiosity, conversation and collective interpretation.

Participation is more than asking for people's views

There is an important lesson here for anyone working with communities around complex issues.

Too often, participation starts with an assumption that we need to give people more information. But information does not automatically create understanding, and understanding does not automatically create action.

Knitting the Air starts somewhere much more local and tangible: the air around us. Residents, knitters, schools, healthcare professionals, scientists and community organisations have all been involved.

The result is a richer picture than quantitative data or consultation alone could provide.

The sensor tells us something about what is happening in the air.

The knitted textile helps people see it.

And community stories help us understand what it means.

That combination is powerful.

Making invisible issues visible

Knitting the Air reminds us that engagement doesn't always need to look like a workshop, survey or focus group. Sometimes the most effective way to engage people with a complex issue is to start somewhere unexpected.

Knitting creates a social space. It brings people together and gives them a reason to talk, learn and contribute. Participation becomes more than a one-off interaction; it becomes a relationship with the issue and with other people.

And that is the real achievement of Knitting the Air.

The 13 metres of knitting are a remarkable piece of artwork, but they are also a record of thousands of hours of collective effort, conversations and experiences.

It shows us that if we want people to engage with evidence, we shouldn't always start by asking:

“How do we explain the data?”

Sometimes the better question is:

“How can we help people experience, interpret and make meaning from it together?”

And sometimes, the answer might be knitting.

Image: picture taken by Sylvie Belbouab at the Knitting the Air Exhibition

If you want to read more please click here: Knitting the Air

And visit Knitting the Air: The Exhibition running until September 20th , Tuesday to Sunday // 10am - 4pm

Find out more about their Public Programme of workshops here: Public Programme

At The Nunnery Gallery in Bow: 81 Bow Road, London, E3 2SJ

Knitting the Air: The Exhibition is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.