The Cost
Installation artwork 2026
Digital art | Installation | Printer art
Shivers Gallery (2026)
Overview:
The Cost is a time based electronic installation about human impacts on the planet.
A retail receipt printer is connected to a Raspberry pi. Every 2 minutes the pi pings a publicly available API. The API data comes from a range of sources, NASA, weather, IUCN extinction reports and prints the live data.
The work builds over the span of weeks as the collective costs pile up.
It was presented at Shivers Gallery in 2026.
Design:
The Cost pulls from 13 live public APIs and datasets, including NOAA (CO₂, methane), NASA (GISTEMP temperature anomaly, EONET wildfires), the IUCN Red List (species status and extinctions), Global Forest Watch (deforestation), UNHCR (forced displacement), OpenSky (aircraft in the air), CelesTrak (space debris) and Open-Meteo (air quality). Nine more blocks are running counters built from published annual figures, such as fossil fuel subsidies (IMF), plastic production (OECD) and e-waste (UN). Each printed block carries its source and a retrieval timestamp. A counter on the plinth tracks every API call the work makes.
Who to contact:
For any commissions, collaborations or inquiries, you can email Tom Richards at thomasrichards@outlook.com.au