‘There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”‘
David Foster Wallace famously relayed the fish parable during his 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College. The tale prefaced a lecture arguing against living an oblivious, unconscious life. Now, his most widely read essay, “This is Water”, is a testament of the times; times in which we often chose oblivion over awareness.
Over the course of the past five years, FutureAir has focused on the science of air – examining how and why indoor air is often more dangerous than the air outside – with the goal of improving the air we breathe indoors. The formula is simple: expand awareness of the problem and then provide a solution. We want people to look around and ask “What the hell is indoor air?” and later yell out, “AIR IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST TEMPERATURE!”
Most of us never thought to question the air in the spaces where we spend most of our time – home, office, school; we didn’t think twice when buildings were sealed and non-operable became the norm. We do not even consider that thermostats should measure more than just temperature; nor can we recall when the first state-wide ban on smoking indoors went into effect (in 1995).
FutureAir’s inquiry into the seemingly common elements that surround us begs the importance of considering “hard-to-see” forces at work around us. FutureAir awakens us to the reality that the systems most familiar to us are often the ones we question the least and the things we take for granted may lead to unforeseen harm. In probing the atmosphere around us, we uncover endless opportunities for improvement.
Read the next segment of our inquiry into the invisible forces around us here.
Wallace, David Foster. This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion about Living a Compassionate Life. Little, Brown, 2009.
Written by Mollie Wodenshek for Future Air