Smog Tasting

“Thanks to Eggs we are able to harvest the air…at the ‘stiff peak’ stage…[egg] foam is approaching 90% air.”
-  On Food and Cooking

This project maps air quality by harvesting air from highly polluted areas. Egg foams are up to 90% air, and whipping the eggs causes particulate matter to be trapped in the batter. The batter can be tested for heavy metals and VOCs, compared in a microscope or baked and served as trojan horse sweets.

Take a snapshot of the air quality. Serve it to politicians or business owners for a blind taste test of the air quality in their area. The tragedy of the commons never tasted so good!

One shouldn’t worry too much about getting sick from these cookies: we breath this air everyday!

As a workshop students or community groups can harvest air in egg foams from different parts of the city, test the results, and place one of each baked cookie on a map for comparison, sending the remainder of the cookies as gifts to interested parties.