Design considerations for an oxygen flute

The "greenhouse effect" polemic demonstrates how cultural dispositions can isolate perceptions from physical reality. The cost of this isolation is a suspension of the perception of cause and effect. Without cause and effect, we cannot reliably link our actions to their effects on our environment. I present design considerations for a project which displays the causal relation between humans and their environment. This project, called Oxygen Flute is a hybrid system, which combines a physical structure, dynamic virtual information technology and real time computer music to enhance the perception of the CO/sub 2/ cycle and the causal relation between human respiration, air quality, and plant life. The system aims to present an immersive, transparent relation between users and their environment. This transparent relation is perhaps a way to overcome cultural dispositions, and to perceive that human life is by no means self-sustaining, but rather dependent on a dense net of supporting natural processes.