Chemical Atlas
Digital prototype, 2025
Chemical Atlas is a digital platform that explores how chemical pollution can be understood and communicated beyond scientific data alone. Commissioned by researchers at UCL, the project responds to the difficulty of mapping pollution across different geographic and temporal scales.
Rather than functioning as a comprehensive atlas, the interface was designed as a working prototype that can be used in future research. The protoype was built in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is available open source on GitHub
Process
Sabin facilitated a co-design workshop at UCL in 2025 with researchers and practitioners working across social sciences, medicine, chemistry, arts, and journalism. She then designed and developed the prototype. Visually, Chemical Atlas is inspired by vintage geology texts. The placeholder images (Pexels) combine cross-sections of earth elements with paper marbling, a technique favoured by Victorian bookmakers.
Contributors
- Workshop and design: Lucy Sabin
- Research: Andrew Barry and Olwenn Martin
- Funded by UCL Grand Challenges Small Grants