Measuring Cup (Brisbane 1887 - 2015)

Abstract

One of the key challenges in understanding environmental change is revealing trends over long time-scales. Measuring Cup is an attempt to compress the timescale of human-induced climate change into a small, handheld object. Measuring Cup is a data-form based on some 150 years of monthly average temperatures for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Each year forms a single horizontal layer, with the radius of each layer based on the temperature value. A higher temperature gives a larger radius. One hundred and fifty of these layers are stacked vertically to create a 3D form. When held in the hand, the cup fits comfortably, because it expands slightly towards the rim. However, this comfortable fit is created by increasingly uncomfortable data that show the accelerating pace of global warming.