It is an open secret that hardware operating on our smart devices contains not only plastic, but also conflict materials such as tungsten, tin, tantulum and gold. Technology is therefore not neutral. These resources are mined in conflict regions, assembled to electric circuits under harmful labour conditions and mostly ending up in contaminating landfills. This pollution is best understood as an enactment of ongoing colonial relations to Land. 

Arts-based research methods seize artistic practice to unpack complexity. Through opening up our artistic research project to citizens we want to make this phenomenon tangible. Intersecting Art and Science needs to be an experience of empowerment, of encouragement to find new ways.

This Citizen Science projecttackles sensitive issues through an online game that introduces the player to alternative technologies. Participants in our workshops (at the Technisches Museum Wien, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna children’s university, Maker Fair Vienna and three Viennese schools) can become players and navigate through different scenes to meet specific characters as avatars. These avatars represent real people from around the world, collaborators in our main research project. Through this form of interactive storytelling young people are invited to become inventors of green and fair hardware themselves, to network among each other and transform their ideas into actual prototypes in the next phase of the project. 

Through the term Ethical Hardware we want to describe technology that does not harm the environment, but embraces restorative practices for the benefit of nature and inhabitants alike.

There are strong social movements among teenage, female* and non-binary creatives who share similar values (Extinction Rebellion, Fridays For Future). Our Citizen Science Project addresses the lack of communication between academia and the youth movement. We would like to explore the creativity and transformative work performed by young citizens, specifically from minorities, by offering a playful entry point to our research. We hope that the visions contributed by CSs will transform our theoretical definition of what imagining future technologies entails, and vice versa give participants the chance to discover alternative futures. This way together we hope to gain the necessary strengths to face this crisis. 

Our research team composed by artists researchers Stefanie Wuschitz and Patrícia J. Reis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the citizen scientists will together with the Technisches Museum Wien (TMW), our national research partner, make the research results operative for use in classrooms and after school programs.

The sale of electrical and electronic equipment is constantly increasing and accordingly e-waste has already become the fastest growing waste stream in the world. Our society needs to face this challenge without delay, so the Recycling Heroes project aims to raise awareness about e-waste, especially among students but also in society in general, by combining the principles of the circular economy with citizen science methods.

Participation

As citizen scientists, the students develop a comprehensive questionnaire to ask their family or neighbours what electronic products are used for and over what period of time, and what happens to devices that are no longer used. Afterwards, the students analyse the results of the survey and consider what could be done to ensure proper disposal and increase the recycling rate. In addition, the students look into the development of electronic products that can be used in other current citizen science projects. These new products can be developed, for example, as a mesh-up of e-waste parts and new parts - sustainability is the focus here! Subsequently, the developed and tested prototypes will be duplicated in small numbers and distributed to other partner schools in the project. These schools will use the prototypes to collect data on temperature, noise, humidity and particulate matter in the school environment, for example, and then make them available to Citizen Science projects.

Aims

The project aims to strengthen the students' environmental awareness and recycling culture, as well as their understanding of eco-design and development processes. In addition, the students learn to develop suitable survey instruments and to sharpen their scientific thinking with regard to citizen science.

Plastic Pirates - Go Europe! A Citizen Science Initiative to investigate plastic pollution along rivers

The pollution of beaches and riverbanks in Europe with plastic waste does not stop at borders. Preventing micro- and macroplastics in the environment, addressing this challenge scientifically and researching sustainable materials are therefore tasks we need to work on together across Europe.

Plastic Pirates - Go Europe! was first developed in Germany in 2016. Since January 2022, with the support of the EU Commission, the initiative has been extended to the whole of Europe as a European citizen science action in which school classes and youth groups (young people aged 10-16) collect plastic samples from streams and rivers and document their findings. The data collected across Europe is entered into a database and then analysed by scientists. Young people who are interested in science and the environment are given the opportunity to participate in practical research. They make an important contribution to researching the state of European rivers and the extent and pollution caused by plastic waste.
As part of the project, the types of waste identified by the individual groups (e.g. cigarette butts, pieces of foil or packaging) are recorded on a suitable river bank or stream with the help of detailed action materials and subsequently published on a digital map. The data collected by the young people will help science to gradually close existing research gaps on the occurrence, composition and production of plastic waste.

Interested school classes and youth groups are cordially invited to participate in the initiative. All information about the "Plastic Pirates" can be found on our homepage (www.plastic-pirates.eu/at) or can be obtained by sending an email request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Photo Gallery

• Citizen Scientists on their way to the collection Citizen Scientists on their way to the collection
• Group discussion of the collection protocols Group discussion of the collection protocols
• Collection at the Danube in Vienna Collection at the Danube in Vienna
• Throwing of the Manta net Throwing of the Manta net
• group C at the microplastics sampling group C at the microplastics sampling
• Manta net stabilised with PET bottles Manta net stabilised with PET bottles
• microplastic sampling with minister of education Polaschek microplastic sampling with minister of education Polaschek
• Minister Polaschek collects garbage for group B with Viennese students Minister Polaschek collects garbage for group B with Viennese students
• group B sorts their garbage finds group B sorts their garbage finds
• Garbage gets sorted Garbage gets sorted
• group B counts and documents their finds group B counts and documents their finds
• Picture for the data validation of the results of group B Picture for the data validation of the results of group B
• group A documents a photo of their transects for the data validation group A documents a photo of their transects for the data validation
• after uploading the data onto the website, they can be seen on the interactive map after uploading the data onto the website, they can be seen on the interactive map
• Plastic Pirates at the European Researchers' Night Plastic Pirates at the European Researchers' Night
• Microplastics Danube wetlands Microplastics Danube wetlands
• Plastic Litter National Park Donauauen Plastic Litter National Park Donauauen
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CrowdWater is a hydrological citizen science project of the University of Zurich. CrowdWater uses an app to collect data about water. No prior knowledge is required to participate.

What is the project about?

CrowdWater stands for independent and reliable data collection by anyone with an interest in water. The observations collected with the CrowdWater app can complement existing measurements and be used for hydrological modeling. The method is being developed in Zurich and will also be used in remote areas and regions with low data availability. 

How can interested citizen participate?

With the CrowdWater app for Android and iOS, participants can collect data on water levels (with physical and virtual staff gauges), soil moisture, the condition of temporary streams, plastic pollution and water body type independently and without measuring devices. New observation stations can be created anywhere in the world or additional observations can be added to an existing station.

In the CrowdWater online game, the data quality of the uploads in the category "virtual staff gauge" is checked and if needed improved by contributing citizen scientists.

What happens with the data?

The data are published anonymously on our homepage and can be used for free for own projects. In the research project, the data is used for hydrological modeling so that its potential can be investigated. Two PhDs have already been completed in the CrowdWater project, and two more PhDs are currently ongoing. Currently, the focus is on temporary streams and water quality observations. The publications that have come out of the project so far can be found here. What the current research team is working on can be read here.

Interactive map:

Citizen Science Seminar

In 2022, poject coordinator Jan Seibert held a lecture about Crowdwater as part of the lecture series "Citizen Science Seminar" at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU): "What we can all observe - Experiences from the CrowdWater Project" (in German). Here, you can watch the video recording of the lecture on our YouTube-channel: