Projection Mapping in the City: Co-creating Public Digital Installations for Climate Awareness with Animation and Interaction Design Undergraduates

We report from a project where students created animated public content to promote the urgency of climate change and encourage positive behavior change amongst a city’s citizens and stakeholders. We worked with [anon City] Council whose Net Zero agenda has been formulated to mitigate and adapt to climate change, including by changing public perception and promoting more sustainable lifestyles. 32 final-year Animation and Interaction Design (IxD) undergraduate students worked in a collaborative design process to create seven site-specific public campaigns applying animation and projection mapping technologies. Educational challenges included working with new technology, delivering a professional quality result to an external client, and a short 8-week schedule. The results included an interactive game to engage publics in the concept of plastic bottle deposit recycling scheme; ‘guerilla’ projecting on a major clothing retail store intended to encourage passing shoppers to reflect on their role on the negative aspects of fast fashion; and an installation across some of the underground metro stations to highlight and celebrate the sustainability principles of public transport. Our contribution includes our case study of an agile structured collaboration process, with the dual focus of creating high-quality, engaging and site-specific creative content and promoting a specific aspect of the Council’s policy agenda. Additionally, we discuss insights into tailoring projection mapping and animated content for civic communications purposes and encouraging digital animation students – who typically work on their independent production – to engage in collaborative processes and civic responsibilities.