ArtBlitz challenge for environmental humanities master’s students
Baiba Pruse
April 10, 2025, 11:01 a.m.
Authors: Julia Prakofjewa (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy), Baiba Prūse (University College Cork, Ireland)
Have you ever walked in the streets with a thought that a flower meadow, seaweed, or seagrass could be illustrated on the white building walls? Well, we have! ECSA Working Group on Green spaces and citizen science, and its chairs Baiba Prūse, Sofie Meeus, Stefano Martellos and Vito Emanuele Cambria undertook a new adventure. By co-joining forces with the SPOTTERON citizen science platform and the ArtSpots app team, we brought a unique research challenge to Ca’ Foscari University of Venice master students facilitated by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice Biocultural Diversity Lab team.
What was the challenge?
The team invited the students to dive into the dynamic intersection of street art and nature in an urban setting. Over the past months, students were tasked with:
Exploring the ArtSpots app, running on the SPOTTERON citizen science app platform, to identify natural elements within urban art, creating essential categories for analysis;
Brainstorming with the challenge commissioners about a campaign concept for ArtBlitz* that deepens our understanding of the nature-human connection through the lens of (street)-art.
This challenge not only sparks creativity but also taps into academic focuses on ecology, sustainability, and the humanities, providing a platform to merge art, citizen science, and environmental awareness. The #ArtBlitz challenge offers students a unique opportunity to contribute to the citizen science field. By categorising and analysing street art through the data from SPOTTERON ArtSpots app, they build bridges between ecology and urban art, and sparking conversations on how nature influences and is represented in public spaces.
The students in their reflections emphasized how theory was brought into practice and offered ground for new ways of merging their knowledge in real-world situations. Additionally, students shared a positive energy and insights how ArtBlitz could facilitate building human-nature relationships in urban settings.
Besides the initiators of the challenge and the working group members, the activity involves the encouragement from the From Sea to Street (IMPETUS-funded citizen science project) team, the Street Art Museum Amsterdam, and Vrije Universiteit Athena Institute colleagues. The members from this collaboration joined the interactive session with the students and their mentors.
Please be welcome to reach out to Working Group Chair Baiba Prūse for more info and collaboration opportunities, bpruse[@]ucc.ie We are eagerly looking for collaborators and funding opportunities to kick-start the ArtBlitz campaign.
*What is ArtBlitz? A concept which was discussed during the “From Sea to Street” project and is based on the BioBlitz** methodology.
**Sofie Meeus, Iolanda Silva-Rocha, Tim Adriaens, Peter M J Brown, Niki Chartosia, Bernat Claramunt-López, Angeliki F Martinou, Michael J O Pocock, Cristina Preda, Helen E Roy, Elena Tricarico, Quentin J Groom, More than a Bit of Fun: The Multiple Outcomes of a Bioblitz, BioScience, Volume 73, Issue 3, March 2023, Pages 168–181, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biac100
Want to hear more? Join our session at CitSciHelvetia'25 conference in Switzerland on 5-6 June 2025.