Ecomedia Colorado engages interdisciplinary and intergenerational groups in Colorado to have dialogues about local environmental issues and to create artistic representations of related scientific data.
The project in Trinidad, funded by the CU Boulder Office for Outreach and Engagement, involves a web-based application to collect observations and media from contributors about water and ecology, workshops to curate the media and make collages, and an interactive projection showcase where visitors use gestures to explore the digitized collages. Corazón de Trinidad Creative District and CitiSci.org are involved alongside CU Boulder PhD Candidate Kimberly Bianca.
During one weekend in September, Bianca co-facilitated an art workshop with the Trinidad Youth Group, took participants on a guided tour around Trinidad Lake to capture content and then facilitated workshops at Mutiny Cafe to make collages.The project is continuing both through public art displays and further developing a citizen-science archive. These projects, as well as a community user-experience study, will constitute the practice-based research of Bianca’s PhD.
The importance of this work is to use art to encourage people to recognize and appreciate their connection to the ecosystem in which they live or are visiting. This in turn can help communities better understand humans’ relationship with nature and how they affect the ecosystem.