GREEN SPACE STORIES
Green Space Stories is a new citizen science project bringing together the stories of thousands of people from across the UK, sharing their relationship with nature and the landscape, whether hills or mountains, lakes or beaches, woodlands or local parks.
There is no story too short to tell and no experience that we cannot learn from.
We are just as interested in hearing about your dog walk, or daily exercise in nature, as we are about bigger adventures in the natural landscape, and of course your experience as a Lumenator, if you take part in Green Space Dark Skies.
By sharing your story, you will help to create a snapshot of people’s relationships with nature in 2022. Thousands of stories will be gathered in an online archive that anyone will be able to access to understand our connection with the landscape, so encourage your friends and family to share their stories too.
What will happen to my story?
The anonymous stories, photographs and recordings will be available to view through an online dashboard. Anyone can sift and sort through them, based on a particular theme or where they were collected, for example.
The archive might be used by artists to inspire a song, poem, artwork, film or book. It might be used by government organisations or local councils to inform and shape policies. It might be used by researchers looking for information about how certain themes emerge in our relationship with the landscape. Educators or community groups might use it to find stories from people of certain ages, or in a specific area of the country. The possibilities are endless.
The National Parks of the UK will look after the archive for five years.
How can I take part?
You can tell your story through a photo, a few words, or a poem or you can record yourself talking about your memorable or meaningful experience. You might like to take a photo of a painting or natural sculpture made by your child, inspired by their time in nature, or tell us what being in a green or blue (water) space means for you: does it make you feel connected to your past, your family, the future? How does it make you feel? What is a favourite memory?
We will also ask you a few questions to help us understand what your experience means to you. Some of them might look a bit unusual, but we hope that you will find them interesting.
You can share as many stories as you like, but you will have to enter each one separately.
We look forward to reading and seeing your stories.
