How do you think your life could be affected by a more green and sustainable environment?
Cities are at the centre of modern societies, as they are at the core of countries' innovation processes and economic life in general. Modern technologies might be valuable tools for improving the standard of living in cities just as much as the presence of greenery is crucial for the well-being of citizens. Trees and green areas in the urban context are elements considered normal and taken for granted in our cities, but they are actually a necessary source for the good health of the population, valuable 'recharging places' from city stress and carbon dioxide emissions. Using and exploring the power of trees' inter-connectedness, we can imagine how to better re-shape the present and reach a sustainable future.
City live like Trees
The project explores the impact of new technologies in modern urban environments. It devises possible future scenarios to improve the quality of life and sustainability of cities, making people aware of the complexity of the bio-socio-economic challenges of our era. The idea is to map, based on the combination of citizen science and data processing algorithms, human emotions from citizens and link them with tree memories and location, as well to provide new spaces in the cities for citizens to recharge. The belief behind is that using the power of trees' inter-connectedness, we can repair city spaces, which are full of emotions of solastalgia and nature-lack-disorders.
S+T+ARTS Repairing the Present
Since June 2021, as part of the European Commission’s S+T+ARTS initiative, 12 new Regional S+T+ARTS Centers have been creating a space for artists, scientists, and technologists to work together on a common mission: Repairing the present. The S+T+ARTS initiative is a program funded by the European Commission aiming to bring artistic perspectives into the innovation process to address current challenges in today’s society.
Repairing the Present as part of the S+T+ARTS Residencies encourages a critique of the present, the exploration beyond its current limitations, and the re-imagination of other possible futures. To that end, the program fosters the development of methodologies and frameworks for long-term cross-disciplinary collaborations that can lead to products, tools and processes with a positive impact on society at large.
In October and November 2021, 12 Regional S+T+ARTS Centers called international artists working at the intersection between science, technology and the arts to apply for a 6-month residency. The residencies respond to local sustainability challenges that have been defined by invited Local Experts Groups during workshops that took place in July-September 2021. During the residency, the artists engage with the Local Expert Group, the general public as well as other relevant stakeholders in a strongly collaborative process. This crowdsourcing campaign on Futures Canvas forms part of this process.
Your contribution matters and will be part of a larger endeavour: it will be integrated into the S+T+ARTS project report that will be shared and discussed with the EU Commission as well as local stakeholders. This is an opportunity to think along with artists and local experts involved in the challenge.
The challenge is co-commissioned by MAXXI and SONY CSL within the framework of Repairing The Present. Repairing The Present is co-funded by the S+T+ARTS initiative of the European Union.
S+T+ARTS
The S+T+ARTS initiative is a program funded by the European Commission aiming to bring artistic perspectives into the innovation process to address current challenges in today’s society.
S+T+ARTS Residencies
Since its launch five years ago, the S+T+ARTS initiative has hosted over 125 residencies across its different projects. Repairing the Present is adding 21 thematic residencies to the portfolio. Each of the residencies points to an EU Green Deal or a New European Bauhaus goal and reflects pan-European or global issues that require solutions tailored to specific regions.