Eco-Didactic Project for the Knowledge of a Community Museum

The aim of this work is to identify the educational competences and training of third-year students taking the degree in Primary Education at the University of Cordoba, in relation to the protection and conservation of community museums and from an eco-didactic and historical point of view. In this study, the collection of information was validated by means of a Likert-type questionnaire (1–5) with which we collected data from five academic years by handing it out to a sample (n = 332). Among the results obtained, we can emphasize both the degree of involvement and the opinions of the students with respect to valuing the cultural and natural heritage of their environment, as well as the didactic use of the ecomuseum in the area where it is placed. Finally, the conclusions highlight the perceptions of university students regarding the educational impact of ecomuseums as cultural and sustainability elements, in addition to their being an eco-didactic resource for teaching and implementing projects about historical heritage

Ecosystem Approach in Agrivoltaic Parks Design: An Innovative Integral Methodology for the Implementation and Design of Agrivoltaic Fields

The approach to strategic landscape design faces today two challenges: a) the reduction of biodiversity loss b) the mitigation of the negative impact that anthropic activities have on ecosystems. As these are subject to a continuous transformation process, it is essential that the design methodology considers its underlying properties. Hence, arises the need of a profound paradigm shift: integrate better the human landscape into the natural one. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to understand first landscape dynamics as well as the mechanisms that facilitate its resilience and functionality in ecological terms. This is possible thanks to the strategic framework of the Ecological Infrastructure. The landscape proposal must evaluate then the sequence of actions to be carried out, the measures necessary for the improvement of the recognised systems, and its possible evolution over time. Then, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed by the EU 2030 biodiversity strategies, the proposal must demonstrate: How biodiversity will improve and how it will be preserved - How ecological processes linked to biodiversity will be upgraded - How cultural and social processes linked to the site will be enhanced - How agricultural and energy production will increase land efficiency - How disturbances will be modulated and controlled. This methodology carried out in Spain aims to demonstrate that the implementation of agrivoltaic fields create an optimal synergy to ensure food security and mitigate the effects of climate change, but also provide the chance to make the landscape more sustainable, efficient, and beautiful

The Museum as a Space of Historical Memory: Famalicão as an Educating City

This article describes how the project “De Famalicão para o Mundo: Contributos da História Local” was developed and implemented, as well as its local, national, and international projection through different community activities that promote citizen learning. The study focuses on the heritage and local history of Vila Nova de Famalicão, a municipality in the north of Portugal. It presents a museum network that brings together multidisciplinary work teams consisting of teachers, researchers, students, and cultural technicians who participate and are involved in tasks related to the memory, identity, and history of the territory. My work shows both the use of these museological practices and the cultural impact they have on different audiences. Alongside these experiences, the historical and literary narratives of the temporary exhibitions—such as the one dedicated to the Portuguese forced labourers in the Nazi concentration system (1939-1945)—expose the reflections on how the citizens of Famalicão participated and were caught up in this conflict. In this way, museums allow us to interpret not only the painful past, but also the identity awareness of past and present history

Empowering communities through art: Unleashing the potential of public art in urban micro-renewal

As urban space available for new construction continues to diminish, urban renewal strategies have increasingly shifted toward micro-renewal approaches. Within this framework, public art serves as a vital medium for urban cultural development and has been effectively integrated into community spaces under the paradigm of human-centered urban micro-renewal. This study systematically explores the forms, principles, and mechanisms of community public art. First, it establishes the synergistic relationship between urban micro-renewal and community public art. It then identifies six distinct artistic forms: spatial transformation, sculptural installations, murals and wall paintings, public facilities, digital media, and artistic events. Building upon this classification, the study delineates four core principles that community public art should adhere to: the participatory principle of human-centered engagement, the principle of locality emphasizing cultural distinctiveness, the principle of gradual progression ensuring sustainable development, and the social principle of art education. Through comparative case analysis, the study reveals the multidimensional role of community public art in restructuring power dynamics, driving community transformation, and reshaping cultural identity. The findings demonstrate that community public art not only enhances the spatial environment and improves community quality but also fosters social integration and strengthens cultural identity, providing an innovative pathway for urban governance. Finally, the study acknowledges its limitations and outlines future research directions, aiming to contribute to both theoretical discourse and practical applications in community public art

Interactive installations and innovative design solutions using artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have increasingly penetrated the field of modern design, particularly in the creation of interactive installations. This study aimed to analyze the impact of AI-generated interactive installations on user experience and aesthetic perception. The research employed a comparative approach, content analysis, and case study methodology. A total of 50 scholarly sources were collected and analyzed using the PRISMA protocol to ensure systematic selection and review. The findings demonstrated that key AI tools used in interactive installations include generative adversarial networks (GANs), variational autoencoders (VAEs), computer vision systems, natural language processing (NLP), behavioral analytics, and adaptive machine learning algorithms. These tools, while powerful, require high levels of digital competence, precise configuration, and substantial financial investment. Case analyses of installations such as Living Light, The AI Van Gogh Museum, AI-Driven Storefront, and AI Classcape revealed the following benefits: enhanced interactivity, user personalization, innovative use of AI capabilities in aesthetic experiences, and the emergence of AI as a co-author in artistic creation. AI-driven interactive installations offer significant potential in design and digital art. However, their effectiveness is currently limited by the lack of intuitive human-like creativity, reliance on pre-programmed datasets, and the cost of implementation. The results highlight both the transformative potential and the current limitations of AI as a creative agent in modern design environments

Seeds of change: negotiating hierarchies in seed picturebook stories

How tiny seeds are represented in children’s literature has long eluded critical attention, although they are frequently foregrounded in the words and images of children’s picturebooks. Drawing upon critical plant studies, new materialism, and Kathryn Parsley’s notion of “plant awareness disparity”, this article analyzes three contemporary seed picturebook stories, namely Jory John and Pete Oswald’s “The Bad Seed” (2017), Cristiana Valentini and Philip Giordano’s “Stay, Little Seed” (2020), and Jen Cullerton Johnson and Sonia Lynn Sadler’s “Seeds Of Change: Planting a Path to Peace” (2011). With a focus on the verbal and visual representations of seeds and their poetic relationship with children, the analysis of the three seed stories reveals the empowering nature of seed narratives which represent seeds as anthropomorphized characters or symbolic motifs, but most essentially, as agentic beings with vibrancy. These stories exhibit the poetic entanglement of seeds and children in an agentic assemblage of collective vulnerability, which not only blurs the line between the human and vegetal, but also negotiates power hierarchies embedded in the world ruled by adults. Thus, I argue that seed stories reveal the agentic power of seeds by crafting various forms of poetic entanglements between seeds and children. Although the child-seed entanglement may not entirely deconstruct an asymmetry between adults and innocent children as well as between matured plants and tiny seeds, this study offers an alternative perspective that counters the perception of seeds and children as vulnerable and controlled.La crítica ha eludido durante mucho tiempo cómo aparecen representadas las semillas diminutas en la literatura infantil, aunque suelen ocupar un primer plano en las palabras e imágenes de los libros infantiles ilustrados. Recurriendo a los estudios críticos sobre plantas, al nuevo materialismo y a la noción de “disparidad en el conocimiento sobre plantas”, este artículo analiza tres historias ilustradas sobre semillas, concretamente “La mala pipa” (2017) de Jory John y Pete Oswald, “Stay, Little Seed” (2020) de Cristiana Valentini y Philip Giordano, y “Seeds Of Change: Planting a Path to Peace” (2011) de Jen Cullerton Johnson y Sonia Lynn Sadler. Centrándose en la representación verbal y visual de las semillas y de su relación poética con los niños, el análisis de las tres historias sobre semillas revela la naturaleza empoderadora de las narrativas sobre semillas que representan a las semillas como personajes antropomorfos o como motivos simbólicos, pero, más esencialmente, como seres con agencia y vitalidad. Estas historias muestran la implicación entre semillas y niños en un ensamblaje de vulnerabilidad colectiva, que no sólo desdibuja la línea entre lo humano y lo vegetal, sino que también negocia las jerarquías de poder que subyacen en el mundo gobernado por los adultos. De esta forma, sostengo que las historias de semillas revelan la poderosa agencia de las semillas al crear diversas formas de implicación poética entre semillas y niños. Aunque esta implicación puede que no deconstruya completamente una asimetría entre adultos y niños inocentes, así como entre plantas maduras y semillas diminutas, este estudio ofrece una perspectiva alternativa que se opone a la percepción de las semillas y los niños como vulnerables y bajo control

Children's Literature, Ecocritical Dialogues and Social-Emotional Learning: Developing Integrated Teaching Practices

An innovative primary teacher education course at the University of Padova combines children’s literature, ecocritical dialogues, and social-emotional learning (SEL). It aims to enhance educational quality and prepare teachers for global environmental and social challenges. Developed through the Green Dialogues project, it fosters internationalization and interdisciplinarity. This article examines the course’s interdisciplinary teamwork, focusing on its design and teaching methods. A case study highlights the benefits of incorporating ecocritical and SEL approaches in climate action teacher education. The course illustrates how children’s stories can foster environmental and social consciousness and empathy among students. This approach not only enhances pedagogical practices but also prepares teachers to contribute meaningfully to climate literacy and social equity in European higher education

Making the Invisible Visible: Eco-Art and Design against the Anthropocene

This paper examines a series of art and design installations in the public realm that aim to raise awareness or activate change regarding pressing ecological issues. Such works tend to place environmental responsibility on the shoulders of the individual citizen, aiming to educate but also to implicate them in the age of the Anthropocene. How and what these works aim to accomplish, are key to a better understanding the means of knowledge transfer and potential agents of change in the Anthropocene. We study three cases in this paper. These are examined through: (1) their potential to raise awareness or activate behavior change; (2) how well they are capable of making the catastrophic situations, which are invisible to most people, visible; and (3) how well they enable systemic change in the catastrophic situations. In the three cases studied, we find that they are successful in helping to raise awareness and even change individual behavior, they are successful in rendering the invisible visible, but they are incapable of engendering any systemic change of the catastrophic situations depicted

Múzeumok a fenntarthatóság keresztmetszetében = Museums in the Intersection of Sustainability

A múzeumok egyedülálló szerepet töltenek be a kulturális fenntarthatóságban azáltal, hogy megőrzik közösségeik örökségét, valamint biztosítják a kulturális tőke felhalmozódását és átadását a jelenlegi generációktól a jövő generációk számára. Kérdés, hogy hogyan kell megváltozniuk a múzeumoknak a 21. században, hogy az új kihívásoknak megfelelve fenntarthatóvá váljanak, és katalizátor szerepet tölthessenek be az emberiség kultúrájának előmozdításában. Kutatásunk célja, hogy megismerjük, milyen véleménypreferenciák mentén gondolkodnak a magyar múzeumi vezetők a fenntarthatóságról, miben van hasonlóság, és miben van különbség a véleményükben. A kutatási eredmények azt mutatják, hogy nem egységes a fenntarthatósági dimenziók fontossága a magyar múzeumi vezetők körében, három egymástól jól elkülöníthető véleménycsoportot tudtunk beazonosítani: kiállítás-központú innovátor, gyűjteményközpontú stratéga és edukációra alapozó vezető. = Museums play a unique role in cultural sustainability by preserving the heritage of their communities and allowing cultural capital to be accumulated and passed on from current generations to future generations. In the course of their development, museums have acquired a wealth of knowledge through continuous and in-depth research. The question is how should museums change in the 21st century to meet new challenges and become sustainable and play a catalytic role in advancing human culture? The aim of our research is to find out what opinion preferences Hungarian museum leaders have on sustainability, what are the similarities and differences in their views. The research results show that the dimensions of sustainability are not uniform for Hungarian museum managers, and three distinct groups of perceptions could be identified: exhibiton-centred innovator, collection-centred strategist and education-based manager

The Role of Salt Water and the Political-Economic Conditions on the Evolution of Sovata Resort (Romania)

The history of salt exploitation has overlapped the history of human civilization since prehistoric times. Salt has had an important role over the time, both in trade and in maintaining good health. In the areas where it came into contact with natural water springs, therapy–based baths emerged and have treated ailments since early times. By adapting to the trend set in mid-19th century Europe, areas with balneary potential in Transylvania, including Sovata, started to be turned to good account and the foundation for balneary resorts, which later were to become quite famous, was laid. The true valorization of these spas was accomplished only at the turn of the 20th century, when the first modern treatment establishments and the accommodation buildings were constructed. This period is considered to be the golden age of Transylvania’s resorts. Sovata was first mentioned as a healing place in a 1597 letter, which contains an invitation for a sick man to regain health. In 1948 the spas, including Sovata Balneoclimaterica S.A., were nationalized, thus making them more accessible to the public. Nowadays, Sovata is a modern resort according to the European standards, bearing the same touristic and curative potential known for centuries. Nevertheless, the glamour and charm of the old times was wasted