Introduction

With the request from CMU Facilities Maintenance Services, we had two directions we could have headed in. In one, we emphasize the wastefulness of energy usage on campus - make them realize how wasteful they really are. We make them feel guilty. In contrast, we could use data to show students how their hard work can pay off - how their use of energy can be created and tested, not criticized and demeaned. We chose this option with Lavoisier. 

Lavoisier is a public data driven installation on view at Carnegie Mellon University’s Cohen Center gym. Referencing the father of chemistry, Antoine de Lavoisier, and his famous quote on entropy “Nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed” the artwork attempts to warn and educate students on the scale of their energy usage, all the while prompting them to channel their energy and give it back.