During a two-month residency at the ZK/U in Berlin, artist Yeon Sung created Cycling the Unknown: BYOB (Bring Your Own Bike), an interactive performance and installation. The experience offered an immersive way to view urban pollution, encouraging participants to forge a stronger connection with the city’s atmosphere and the unseen impacts of environmental change.

The project drew from “weathering,” a concept explored by feminist theorists Jennifer Mae Hamilton and Astrida Neimanis, who examine the pervasive impact of weather on our bodies and society. This concept became the basis for using cycling as a way to experience Berlin’s air quality first-hand. By transforming cycling into a sensory experience, Yeon aimed to highlight pollution’s immediate and physical effects.
  A project in five phases
Yeon started her project with a two-week exploration of Berlin’s industrial areas, notably Westhafen, during which she collected data and made interviews with residents. Based on her results Yeon crafted a prototype of an upcycled bike that converted pollution data into sound. The installation allowed riders to hear the intensity of pollutants such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides as they moved through Berlin’s streets, transforming the bike from a simple mode of transportation into an interactive device that amplified the experience of pollution. Yeon showcased the project during Berlin Art Week, inviting the public to interact with the weathering bike prototype, explore the research behind it and participate in conversations about local perspectives on environmental issues.

Yeon also offered a hands-on workshop where participants learned to build their own bike-mounted synthesisers to measure air pollution. Participants gained new perspectives on environmental engagement through DIY tech. The residency culminated in a participatory cycling performance where cyclists explored Berlin’s industrial zones as “weather-bodies,” actively sensing their surroundings. Together, participants experienced the physical impact of pollution as they cycled, transforming air quality from an abstract concern into something they could feel and breathe.

Cycling as environmental activism
Yeon’s work at ZK/U Berlin combined environmental awareness with community-driven art. The project transformed cycling into a collective, artistic expression of environmental activism. It demonstrated how everyday objects like bikes, enhanced with DIY technology, can become tools for ecological engagement, turning air quality data into an immediate, sensory experience. 

Thanks to: Czech Centres and ZK/U Berlin  About: Yeon Sung (she/her/hers) (@studio.yeon.sung) is an artist-researcher based in Rotterdam and South Korea. As a child of a generation traumatised by Japanese colonial occupation, her artistic practice is centred on the critical examination of colonial dynamics at the intersection of sociopolitics, environment, and technology through the lens of non-human beings. Weaving a non-Eurocentric narrative with DO-IT-YOURSELF (DIY) tactics using accessible technology and bodily engagement, she experiments with performative practices as a decolonial method that challenges dominant power structures and democratises art for audiences of all economic and social statuses.