pneumOS – The knowledge of the air is open source

In Ravenna, a next-generation cybernetic organ breathes with the city by training inhabitants in a rare form of interaction: becoming sensitive to the well-being of the air. Conceived in 2022, the HER research center’s new datapoietic work is participating in EXPO Osaka 2025 within the Italian Pavilion.

Respiro Tribute

To A Salvatore Iaconesi

To you, my symbiont, this work is dedicated. To you the Breath that united and separated us, that informs and inspires the work. We will never forget you, Salvatore Iaconesi. Anyone who has known your smile. Anyone who was touched by your beauty. Anyone who had access to your gentle code. In all of us you live on.

Oriana Persico

pneumOS is dedicated to Salvatore Iaconesi, artist and partner of Oriana Persico, co-founder of the research center HER she Loves Data and the art duo AOS- Art is Open Source, who passed away on July 18, 2022

The artwork – an open and evolving project

pneumOS is an interactive artwork animated by Ravenna’s air quality data. The work, conceived by artist Oriana Persico, is a next-generation cybernetic organ that breathes with the city, training its inhabitants in a rare form of interaction: becoming sensitive to the well-being of the air. Composed of five sound membranes and a breathing bag, pneumOS transforms data from three weather stations placed on the dock into electrical impulses and compares them with European standards, generating a “GRAMMAR OF BREATHING”. By observing the expressive behavior of the organ, users learn to understand air quality.

pneumOS is based on open source technologies and open data exchange protocols that can be developed, installed and live in any city in the world – generating new breaths. With pneumOS, the availability of open data on the air is transformed from a technical phenomenon into an experience: a new form of accessibility – cultural, poetic, sensory and diffuse – empowers citizens to learn about and care for air and the environment.

The Datapoiesi

pneumOS is the third Datapoiesis work produced by the HER She Loves Data Research Center. In pneumOS, Datapoiesis adopts an ecological approach of the senses, privileging the capacity to feel, interpret and develop empathy between human beings and the environment, united by a new breath

DATAPOIESIS. The Life of the Project [Publication]

Breath Grammar

Consisting of five sound membranes and a breathing bag, the organ transforms data from weather stations into electrical impulses and compares them with European standards, generating a “breath grammar” that allows the user to understand air quality through the music and rhythm of the bag:

– the closer the air is to the standards, the clearer and cleaner the timbre of the sound emitted by the membranes and the cadenced rhythm of the breathing bag

– as pollution increases, the timbre of the sound becomes dirty with noise and the rhythm of the bag accelerates.

pneumOS proposes a new taxonomic approach to the works: the organ is presented in the form of a real anatomy, describing its role in the ecosystem.

The approach has an educational, aesthetic and communicative function. Synthesized in an infographic, the user can study the functioning of the organ, its technological/anatomical components, the data that animate it and the air quality standards that determine its behavior.

Organ anatomy

The infographic, displayed and offered as a panel along with the work, accompanies the audience as they read and enjoy.

Two years of research

The concept and prototype of pneumOS were commissioned by the Municipality of Ravenna in 2022, as part of a collaborative, digitally-supported urban regeneration project: with the project “DARE – Digital Environment for collaborative Alliances to Regenerate urban Ecosystems in middle-sized cities”, an Urban innovative Action funded by the European Union, the local government was looking for innovative ways to present data that characterize quality of life, making it understandable and interesting to citizens.

The work was developed over two years by a transdisciplinary team of researchers, doctors, climatologists, musicians, computer scientists and designers, with the scientific and technological collaboration of the Educational.City/Hi-storia initiative and two university clusters: the Federico II University of Naples and the La Sapienza University of Rome.

The presentation of the work to the city of Ravenna

The work was presented in February 2025 during the launch event of Digital Unite: a citenscience project promoted by the City of Ravenna and supported by European funds from the Emilia-Romagna Region, aimed at bringing citizens closer to the dimension of digital culture and data.

Thus “Respiro” initiative was born, curated by the HER She Loves Data research center: an innovative citizen science format, aiming to activate citizens and raise awareness among air quality data in town.

From Digital Unite to Osaka, a new info-aesthetic feature

The light, consisting of an LED ring placed inside the silicone breathing diaphragm, was initially added to allow the work to be illuminated in the beautiful structure of the Expo 2025 Italian Pavillon, avoiding solutions such as spotlights from above or from the side (with the associated reflection problems posed by the dome).

Later, the light was linked to data (such as sound and movement of the bag), adding to the work’s info-aesthetic apparatus and the breath grammar that allows the user to interpret the state of the air.

PICTURE FROM OSAKA EXPO 2025

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGIES

Environmental data; APIs; software (Python, Pure Data, C); smart sensors (weather controllers); metal; Plexiglas; silicone; wood; water-based paints; PLA (polylactic acid); ABS; multilayer pipes; multicolored synthetic feathers; linear actuator; STM Nucleo board; Arduino; Raspberry Pi; sound membranes; electrodynamic exciters; multichannel sound board; Bluetooth audio amplification system; uninterruptible power supply; electric transformer; electric cables; screws.

TECHNIQUES

Environmental data study, analysis and processing; transdisciplinary research (air quality, human anatomy, medicine, art, design, ecology, info-aesthetics); creative coding; generative music; “data-driven” kinetic and programmed art; 3D printing and modeling; mixed sculpture (digital and hand techniques); custom silicone casting; hand silicone fabrication and coloring; hand metal fabrication (bending, cutting, painting).

About pneumOS

CREDITS

pneumOS is a work commissioned by the City of Ravenna, through the DARE program – Digital
environment for collaborative Alliances to Regenerate urban Ecosystems in middle-sized cities

produced by HER she Loves Data research center.

Scientific and technological partners

Educational.city & Hi-storia

Herobots Ltd. – Spin-off of the Department of Industrial Engineering
of the Federico II University of Naples;

Saperi&co – Research and Services Center, Sapienza University of Rome.