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 projectOlivanta Mwenda

  Making Air Visible

  A proposal for low-cost air-quality sensing, community mapping and green-barrier prototypes in Mukuru, Nairobi, involving local youth groups and community organisations.
• Featured projectLI Jiwen

  Moss Walk

  An open-source digital project exploring mosses and urban microclimates. It proposes community walks and mapping to build a shared digital artwork from observations of moss in the city.
• Featured projectGerardo Cruz & Luisa Tovar Méndez

  NERVADURA

  A project in development using sensor-equipped, moving objects to explore local environmental conditions in Valencia, with plans for community-built devices and an audiovisual response to the collected data.
• Featured projectMaría Paz Miranda González

  Salineros del Nilahue

  A proposed collaboration with salt workers, combining environmental observations, historical records and collective textile art to document local knowledge and socioenvironmental change.
• Featured projectVictoria Pham

  Soil Song, Issue 01: Wilding

  A planned digital journal bringing together art, environmental research and storytelling. Its first issue, Wilding, explores ecological futures and the relationship between urban life, communities and the natural world.
• Featured projectShalini Natarajan

  The Air We Remember

  A proposed textile archive combining cotton cloth exposed to Bengaluru’s air with residents’ audio reflections. The collected textiles would form a patchwork installation linking material traces of pollution with personal experiences.
• Featured projectAnoushka Pednekar & Amrutha Sai Kannan

  The Handbook of Hope

  A proposed project with Mumbai’s fishing communities, combining traditional songs and performance with community-led environmental observations to document changing coastal conditions and local knowledge.
• Commissioned project

  What Does the Air Say?

  Marcus Smith is developing a community radio and podcast series about air quality in Bristol. Interviews with East Bristol residents form part…