Sentinel species: towards a co-evolutionary relationship for raising awareness about the state of the air

Interactive technologies are increasingly being used as discursive objects for raising awareness about the environment in the cultural sector, but little is known about the user’s lived experience during an interaction. In this study, we present the development and evaluation of an interface designed to raise awareness about the environment within a speculative art installation. For this purpose, we drew on the concept of sentinel species, specifically the miner’s canary, to enable a multisensory experience with the state of the air. We then evaluated the interface with 14 participants while interacting in a prototypical arrangement in the laboratory. Overall, the findings indicate promising directions towards a sentinel-species-mimicking interface that communicates the state of the air through its physiological behavior and thus also engages with the user’s empathy on a cognitive and emotional level. Based on the findings, we highlight the implications of this study and point to further directions for human–atmosphere interactions.