An Art-Based IS for Improving Room-Climate

Indoor room-climate influences our everyday life on many levels. High room temperature decreases our productivity and our ability to concentrate. Moreover, many medical conditions can be traced back to bad indoor room-climate. In this paper we present an information system (IS) for room-climate monitoring. Our system is an informative art system being equipped with standard room climate sensors for temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide. In contrast to conventional monitoring systems a display embedded in a standard art frame presents the current room climate on the basis of classical art. Changing room conditions are reflected in the painting in real-time. By implementing the presented IS we pursue a research avenue which is dedicated to a more fundamental research questions: "Are hedonic, art-based IS superior to utilitarian, non-art-based IS in respect to usage and impact?