I’m involved with the newly started foundation Quantified Planet which looks to index all data streams related to goal #11 in the recently-adopted-by-UN Sustainable Development Goals; the urban development goal. Urbanization is a mega-trend, and we need to figure out new ways to keep the planet and the people who will soon be living in cities happy. One way to achieve this is to monitor environmental factors, or indicators, in our surroundings, and learn from how the data changes over time.

The notion of the “Smart City” and the data streams that powers it are abstract concepts, even to some of the decision makers who take the responsibility of making it happen. Therefore I wanted to present the actual hardware in a way that showed both how ugly and mundane they are, as well as how they may be worn or carried by the citizens themselves. Of course this was also a way to ignite conversation around sensors and what, where and how we should keep them around us.

The sensor smörgåsbord was assembled for QP’s Healthy Cities Summit at Openlab in Stockholm.

Thanks to Hanna and Manika for collaborating on this.