Explore knowledge & action

In May to June 2026, CitiObs and the Distributed Design Platform invited artists, designers, makers and collectives to explore environmental monitoring and citizen science through creative practice. The call received 213 proposals and led to five commissions, alongside a selection for the platform’s online exhibition.

Read about the open call

• Featured projectClimate Babes

  Air Chimes

  A participatory project in Castelnuovo di Porto, Italy, using wind-chime-inspired installations to gather residents’ and commuters’ memories, reflections and sensory experiences of local air quality.
• Commissioned project

  Air Synthesizer

  Wu Siou Ming is developing a sound installation that translates air-quality readings into changes in harmony, rhythm and texture.
• Featured projectAndrea Farah Gaeta

  Barrios en Resistencia

  A collaborative mapping platform documenting neighbourhood businesses, local stories and community life in the Canary Islands through participatory walks, oral histories and audiovisual storytelling.
• Commissioned project

  Binary Loom

  Kateřina Kováříčková is developing a moving textile installation that responds to air-quality data, with each strip representing a sensor location.
• Featured projectNoufa Shabeer

  Breaking the Loop

  A walk-through installation using architecture, sound and movement to explore environmental change, taking visitors through three stages centred on home, disruption and renewal.
• Featured projectJea Kyong Sim

  Breathing Paper

  A project using wearable hanji paper garments as material records of air pollution, bringing together changes in the paper’s appearance, participants’ photographic diaries and local air-quality data.
• Featured projectGabriella Kiss

  Breathing Routes

  An art project in development combining walking, sensory observations, air-quality measurements and collective embroidery to create a shared textile map of urban air.
• Commissioned project

  Climate Arts Lab

  Morris Mburu brought artists and Indigenous knowledge holders together in the Mt Kenya region to develop songs, poetry, paintings and photographs from…
• Featured projectDusts Institute

  Dusts Catcher Kit

  A low-cost, open-source kit for collecting and examining airborne dust. Designed for workshops, schools and public events, it invites people to investigate their surroundings through shared observation.
• Featured projectOscar Ryan Ouma

  Environmental Memory Maps

  A community-led project in Busia, Kenya, combining storytelling, photography and participatory mapping to document environmental change around Lake Victoria through local memories and present-day observations.
• Featured projectHanju Seo

  HOMI

  A sensing project using a low-cost LiDAR device to record farming movements in 3D. It explores how agricultural workers can document their contribution and retain ownership of those records.
• Commissioned project

  How Are You Really?

  Róza Deák works with anonymous messages left in public space. Her proposed installation brings selected texts onto hanging fabric panels, where visitors…