Climate science has long presented its warnings in models, variables, tables, and graphs – impressive, complex, startling, frightening results. But for many, these details remain distant, locked away somewhere, leading to ignorance, numbness, and paralysis. Actionism exists only among a few citizens.

In our Citizen Art project, we combine Augmented Reality, Sferism, and Appropriation Art to enable citizens to create climate-related photos or videos on their mobile phones: climate issues play a central role both in the citizens’ creation processes and in sharing of the resulting works. We try to shift the focus from technical presentations to emotional ones, from recipients of information to creative actors and to community engagement.

Our project started with oil on canvas - visions of a possible future status of the Earth with acidic, reddened, desert-resembling, barely habitable areas. These painted futures were passed on to 3D artists who developed the Climate Sphere. This freely available digital globe is waiting to be placed in our world using Augmented Reality techniques on mobile phones. Examples of climate-related real-world elements include fountains as a metaphor for a world in need of cooling, airplanes producing condensation trails, or melting glaciers. Appropriation Art reinterprets physical artworks by adding the Climate Sphere.

In contrast to typical citizen science projects, we provide a semi-finished product that can be completed by creative actions of citizens. In our presentation we will show for the first time examples of digital artifacts created by Citizen Artists.