The title of this show had me expecting water misters and dry ice machines as I walked through the front doors of the relatively new galleries at San Francisco non-profit Southern Exposure. That didn’t happen of course, because that would have been silly and SoEx, as those in the know call it, isn’t silly, but a serious contributor to our community’s cultural life.

For those who may not be familiar, this scrappy paragon of San Francisco alternative spaces, has been mounting community gatherings (e.g. Monster Drawing Rallies) and innovative thematic exhibitions since 1974, at this point probably longer than many of the artists they show have been alive. You’re almost certain to be invited to participate in many interactive activities. In the current parlance, this is called “social practice,” and is a means of expression evident in much SoEx programming. At their best, these pieces accomplish through interactions what most great art does, they pull you out of routine and plant you firmly in the middle of a new perspective by making you do something unfamiliar.

Social practice is at the heart of Vapor.

You can borrow a bike and pedal your way around instead of driving to improve air quality, similar to a program tried in Paris on a much grander scale and in other cities around Europe. “Civic Cycle creates a temporary bike share program, a public bike pump, and a public forum on Saturday, May 3, 2008. This charrette [with artists Amy Franceschini and Michael Swaine] will present existing city bike share programs and open a discussion to gather input on how San Francisco’s city bike program might look and operate,” says the brochure.

Futurefarmers, Civic Cycle

This is civic participation in real change that is badly needed and could catalyze similar progressive efforts elsewhere; it’s also quintessentially part of the larger cycle of programs and projects put together by Futurefamers, the moniker that Franceschini and Swaine go by.

The stated curatorial angle for guest curators Alison Sant and Jordan Geiger is to “survey [sic] new art, architecture and design that takes our declining atmospheric conditions as the subject matter, medium and metaphor for creative work.” So, it seemed to me, kudos galore to all these savvy and celebrated people (Franceschini won a much deserved SECA this last go around at SFMOMA); maybe their ideas will blossom and catch on and we’ll all be better off for the effort.

Artist Natalie Jeremijenko’s invited everyone to wear white cloth facemasks…yeah that’s right, so you look like you’re protected from SARS or bird flu. But I thought we still had comparatively great air here in San Francisco? All that ocean breeze and electric buses? Not so. These masks “blacken with contact to air pollutants to read ‘Clear Skies?’” Jarring! Fantastic! And I was certainly intrigued, maybe a little too frightened by how quick mine might discolor if I wore it around town. Jeremijenko’s design for a Greenlight was a beautiful living object and looked like something you’d see at the San Francisco Green Building Expo/West Coast Green each September (next year they’re going to move this mammoth event to San Jose). Many of the projects engaged with practical solutions to hidden problems with air quality and these came the closest in my mind to resonating with the show’s title.

Natalie Jeremijenko, Greenlight

Eric Paulos and Urban Atmospheres have designed a slew of objects “at the intersection of science and citizenry.” Repurposing signage and other everyday objects familiar to us in public places, they make suggestions around electronic networking (e.g. Bluetooth and wireless technologies) that would monitor air quality. Here’s a suggestion: Maybe these could translate into big signs that would sternly reprimand citizenry for driving gas guzzlers when skies grow hazy. “YOU THERE, IN THE HUMMER, PULL OVER IMMEDIATELY AND START WALKING!” Visit their web site and you’ll see the intelligence and humor of many of their projects.

Want to carry a combined GPS device and pollutant sensor around with you today? Preemptive Media’s got you covered and you can check out one of these box-like doohickies from the SoEx staff and freak yourself out all over town—even monitor what other networked doohickies are picking up in other “pollutant hotspots.”

Preemptive Media, AIR device, illustration

With Living City, David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang, have created physical models and computer animation sequences to propose a city that breathes, not as sci-fi impractical as you might think. If the facades of buildings could somehow more fully come under control by city government (leases?), they could be designed to communicate air quality with one another across internet based networks. The result would be buildings that recycle their filtered internal air when smog prevails and open their gills to fresh breezes when the sky is clear. They’ve offered this platform as a proposal at www.thelivingcity.net. Fascinating stuff.

David Benjamin + Soo-In Yang, The Living City, prototype

So what’s Vapor really about? Well, it’s certainly about becoming more aware of the “invisible” (out of sight, out of mind) atmosphere around us. I suppose this is beyond laudable, more Bay Area art with a progressive agenda; it’s a survival prerogative that we all go beyond awareness to feel our own unique sense of stewardship for the natural world and that this sense becomes a kind of conscience related to the whole gigantic biosphere. This conscience can spur each of us to action, to changing habits and maybe help us all to breathe a little easier.

Vapor will be on view at Southern Exposure through May 3, 2008. Several Vapor-related events are taking place during the run of the exhibition. For more information visit www.soex.org

A note about biomimicry and related reading:
Architects, designers and engineers familiar with the latest trends call efforts to emulate ecosystems “biomimicry." You can learn more about it in a book by the same name, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus. If you’ve now opened your book wish list, you might also want to try Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolutions, a deeply inspiring and revolutionary volume by luminaries Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins; this one is a big favorite of Big Al Gore. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart is also worth a solid read for those interested in practical solutions to climate change (and the new thinking we’ll need to adopt).