Listening to Waters – Reimagining Media Education through Co-Creation and Ritual Theater
LED BY // Nicole Loeser and Angelica Böhm
1 June – 7 June 2025
As part of the Green Education in Media (GEM) project, students and lecturers from nine partner institutions gathered in June 2025 on the Greek island of Evia for an intensive, collaborative workshop. This 5-day field camp brought together six interdisciplinary groups to develop creative responses to the overarching theme: “Listen to Water – Water and Biodiversity.”
About
Part 1: Educational Goals and Interdisciplinary Approach
The course was embedded in a broader curriculum research exploring how digital media and artistic practices can support sustainability transformations. Emphasis was placed on using low-energy technologies, sound and radio art, interactive and locative media, and site-specific storytelling to cultivate new approaches to blue literacy and futures thinking. Each working group explored different pathways—from Augmented Reality nature walks to bio-diverse radio broadcasts and interactive installations—all contributing to a shared commitment to co-creation and critical engagement with place, technology, and environmental narratives.
Part 2: “Art For Futures Lab goes Ritual Theater” Group Highlights, Goals & Achievements
One of the six groups, co-facilitated by Angelica Böhm (Film University Babelsberg) and Nicole Loeser (The Institute for Art and Innovation), explored low-impact, site-specific storytelling. The group worked with natural and found materials, and emphasized sound-based practices such as multilingual singing and field recordings. The process reflected principles of co-creation, systems thinking, and embodied futures literacy. Its performative method offered an inclusive format where each student could engage at their own pace, fostering both personal reflection and collective expression. It became a testing ground for how ritual, story, and nature-based media can be meaningfully integrated into future film and media curricula across the GEM network.
Participants of the group created innovative media formats that combined sound, interaction, and immersive experiences, while being mindful of ecological impact. Examples of media outputs included:
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Sound installations and radio pieces
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Interactive, locative media projects
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Narratives anchored in specific natural sites as well as in historical and ancestral myths
All approaches aimed to raise awareness of water’s vital role in ecosystems through sensory and place-based engagement. Indeed, students engaged with:
- The region’s climate-induced challenges: water scarcity, floods, and recurring wildfires
- Social dynamics like rural depopulation and seasonal tourism
- Local knowledge about drinking water, including spring sources and tap water concerns
Part 3: Implications for Media Education
Beyond technical skills in sound, interactivity, and immersive storytelling, the workshop focused on fostering environmental awareness and critical reflection. It highlighted the potential of listening rituals—understood as mediated, attentive practices related to water—as powerful tools for ecological pedagogy and collective environmental engagement.
The outcomes suggest long-term educational potential in integrating art, technology, and ecology, supporting the development of media-literate citizens who are also sensitive to pressing environmental and biodiversity challenges.
Thus, the GEM project continues to develop innovative curricula that connect environmental awareness with digital and media literacy.
Conclusion
Equally inspiring was the diversity of formats across the six workshop groups. These outcomes demonstrate how interdisciplinary, co-creative learning fosters not only knowledge but also empathy and agency.
This workshop reaffirmed the importance of:
- Co-creating safe, exploratory spaces for learning
- Embodying sustainability values through creative and collective practice
- Making educational processes tangible, local, and inclusive
More about the Art For Futures Lab here
