U-DATInos: citizen science project merges data, art, and environmental activism in Palermo

Artists Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico launched U-DATInos, a participatory project on the Oreto River in Palermo, where 16 'Custodi dell’Acqua' (Water Guardians) use simple sensors to collect water quality data. The data feeds a meditative installation at the Ecomuseo Mare Memoria Viva, but the project's core is the collective process: citizens, students, doctors, architects, and activists explore the river together, generating data as a social and expressive act. The project reimagines data not as a tool of extraction or control, but as a medium for community bonding, environmental care, and new rituals. Iaconesi and Persico argue that art must engage with data and computation aesthetically, creating shared meaning rather than spectacle. The Ecomuseo, coordinated by Cristina Alga, acts as a hub, connecting with the Comitato Promotore del Contratto di Fiume e di Costa Oreto. The project emerged from pandemic constraints, with remote workshops and self-organized expeditions. It exemplifies the artists' concept of 'Rituali del Nuovo Abitare' (Rituals of New Dwelling), aiming to foster new sensibilities toward data for future global challenges like climate change. The installation will allow others to connect with the river, and the project may generate new economies such as 'datapoietic' eco-tourism.