What? Air Chimes is a participatory art and citizen-science project that explores how residents and commuters in Castelnuovo di Porto perceive and relate to air quality through three interactive, wind-chime-inspired installations.

Why? The project aims to uncover the emotional, sensory, and lived experiences of air quality that are often absent from quantitative data, fostering dialogue and collective awareness around the local environment.

How? Participants respond to three prompts about air quality, memories, emotions, and awareness through colour-coded contributions, written reflections, and a creative activity. Their responses become both qualitative data and a community-created artwork. Each session begins with a short guided grounding exercise.

Who? Residents and commuters of Castelnuovo di Porto, together with the project team facilitating the participatory process.

When? During a series of community encounters organised throughout the project.

Where? In Castelnuovo di Porto, Italy, with a focus on local perceptions of air quality and its relationship to nearby Rome.

Climate Babes is a multicultural and ecofeminist art collective blending creative participation, data literacy and inclusivity to navigate environmental challenges. We see participatory art as a gateway, inviting people to engage with climate action without judgment and showing that creativity can open doors where words fall short.

We embrace slowness as care, practice gentle rebellion through kindness, listen actively to every voice, and believe in co-creation, joy, and ecofeminism.

Through participatory art, citizen science and art therapy workshops, we explore our relationship with nature and our emotions tied to the climate crisis. For us, art is more than a tool: it is a language of expression that creates connection, fosters empathy, co-creates knowledge and invites everyone into climate action.

Our practice is rooted in slowness, care, and collaboration. We see slowness as a way to cultivate and regenerate meaningful relationships, making space for reflection, connection, active listening, and knowledge co-creation.

We embrace gentle rebellion by inviting people into climate action through data-driven participatory art, kindness, and play. We believe openness begins with making participation accessible, joyful, and free from judgment.

Guided by an ecofeminist perspective, we recognise the need for an emotional and creative approach to climate and data literacy. We approach every project as part of a living ecosystem, where people, places, and more-than-human life are interconnected.

About the design collective