DigiFREN: Digital Aestheticization of Fragile Environments

It can readily be observed simply by looking around or listening attentively in any natural setting, that people’s engagements with their surroundings are different from a decade ago. Today, in the mountains, by the seaside, and in the forests, it is hard to find anyone who is not tapping on their smartphones, flying drones, using wearable cameras or other gadgets to digitally “capture”, and augment, their experiences of the environment. The objective of DigiFREN is to study this transformative moment of environmental perceptions in Europe.

The historically and ethnographically grounded research will elucidate digital aestheticization in/of fragile environments, namely, how are digital media and technology implicated in reframing environmental perceptions, affections, conceptions, and practices. Five places in Slovenia, Croatia, Finland, Norway and Poland, strongly impacted, or seen to be threated, by human activity, have been carefully selected to reflect the cultural and ecological diversity of Europe. Although particularly important in the era of “overheating” (Eriksen 2016), digital aestheticization of fragile environments remains ethnographically relatively understudied. In the humanities, it has primarily been debated in art theory, (new) media studies and philosophy. Furthering these debates, DigiFREN will approach digital aestheticization as it unfolds in everyday life.

DigiFREN is the first ethnographic project to undertake a large-scale, comparative study of the topic in a digitalising Europe. It expands established methodological strategies and introduces the experimental method of senso-digital walking. DigiFREN is uniquely designed to study the shifting and increasingly important relationships between the changing categories of the human, environmental and technological. Thus, it will produce important results relevant to not only anthropology, history, cultural and sensory studies, but also to human geography, environmental aesthetics and media studies.

KEYWORDS:

digitalisation, digital aestheticisation, environmental relationships, fragile environments, outdoor leisure activities, digital anthropology, multisensory anthropology, innovative ethnographic methods

CONSORTIUM

  • Project Leader: Blaž Bajič, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Slovenia, e-mail
  • Marcin Brocki, Jagiellonian University, Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Poland
  • Juhana Venäläinen, University of Eastern Finland, School of Humanities, Finnish Language and Cultural Research, Finland, e-mail
  • Sanja Đurin, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research Zagreb, Croatia, e-mail
  • Finn Arne Jørgensen, University of Stavanger, Department of Cultural Studies and Languages, Norway

COOPERATION PARTERS

  • Marko Slapnik, Poseben dan Institute (PDI)
  • Patryk Wojciechowski, Wroclaw Ethnological Association
  • Marie Kofod-Hansen, The commission of Peatlands and Society, International Peatland Society
  • Natalija Andačić, Paklenica National Park

EFFECTS & ACHIEVEMENTS

Project website

Project achievements

  1. Background

Across Europe, many people now experience outdoor environments with smartphones, action cameras, drones, and social media close at hand. These tools do not only record nature; they also shape what people notice, value, remember, and share. DigiFREN investigated why certain landscapes become “must-see” places online, how digital images and apps influence on-the-ground practice, and what this means for environments that are already under pressure from tourism, infrastructure, or climate change.

  1. Purpose and objectives

Over 36 months, DigiFREN studied how digital media and technologies reframed environmental perception and everyday outdoor practices in five countries— Slovenia, Croatia, Finland, Norway, and Poland— using a comparative approach across diverse sites (Alpine valleys; Adriatic coasts; peatlands; an urban forest; and a large river basing landscape). The project aimed to:

  • explain how digital sharing and platforms influenced how people Project fieldwork took place across five countries perceived and used fragile environments;
  • compare similarities and differences across European contexts;
  • develop and share an innovative, transferable research approach for studying the merging of the senses and digital media in the outdoors.
  1. Methodology

DigiFREN combined ethnographic fieldwork with the study of digital materials and local histories. The team developed a method of senso-digital walking: researchers walked with participants in the field while discussing technologies used before, during, and after outdoor activities, sometimes using photographs (including re-photography) to reflect on environmental change. In total, the project conducted 60 walks (12 per country), followed by short reflective interviews.

  1. Key Findings and impact

DigiFREN’s comparative research underlined that digital technologies helped create new expectations of what “good nature” should look and feel like—often favouring spectacular views, shareable moments, and platform-friendly narratives. At the same time, the project showed that digital practices could also support environmental awareness, for example by making change more visible through images, timelines, and place-based storytelling.

A major impact of DigiFREN was practical knowledge for stakeholders in environmental protection, sustainable tourism, outdoor leisure, and digital tool development —supporting more culturally and ecologically sustainable ways of engaging with vulnerable places.

To support ongoing public value, DigiFREN developed openly accessible outputs, including a web-based methodological companion on senso-digital walking and an open, ethically managed research data collection via established repositories.

Publications:

  • Bajič, B., Svetel, A., Affordances for/of the Future: Relating/Reconfiguring Environments, Temporalities and People, Sensory Environmental Relationships: Between Memories of the Past, Experiences of the Present, and Imaginings of the Future, 2023, https://vernonpress.com/book/1775
  • Repič, J., Environmental  Relationships in Transhuman Pastoralism in Bohinj, North-Western Slovenian Alps,  Sensory Environmental  Relationships: Between Memories of the Past, Experiences of the Present, and Imaginings of the Future, 2023, https://vernonpress.com/book/1775
  • Svetel, A., Moving, Returning, Staying: Mobilities of Rural Youth in the Solčavsko Region, Rethinking Urban-Rural Relations/Migrations in Central-Europe. The Case of Slovenia and Hungary, 2024, https://doi.org/10.15170/PNEKATWP.2022.03.00
  • Svetel, A., Pogledi od blizu: mladi, prihodnost in zamišljanje razvoja na Solčavskem, Pogledi od blizu: mladi, prihodnost in zamišljanje razvoja na Solčavskem, 2022, https://ebooks.uni-lj.si/ZalozbaUL/catalog/view/372/699/8068
  • Bajič, B., Skrb za krhke krajine: Krajina, skupnost in (ne)spremenljivost na Solčavskem, Traditiones, 2023, https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/traditiones/article/view/12692
  • Svetel, A., Za kaj skrbimo, ko skrbimo za krajino?: Toponimi, ovce in ruševine na severovzhodni Islandiji, Traditiones, 2023, https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/traditiones/article/view/12800
  • Bajič, B., Abram, S., Sensory Gentrification in the Most Beautiful City in the World, Ethnologia Fennica, 2024
  • Abram, S., The long journey to senso-digital walking, Svetovi/Worlds, 3(1), 2025, https://doi.org/10.4312/svetovi.3.1.115-129
  • Bajič, B., Abram, S., Svetel, A., Fragile Environments in a Digital Age, University of Ljubljana Press, 2025
  • Božić, S., Instagrammable Destinations as “Whatever” Destinations, Svetovi/Worlds, 3(1), 2025, https://journals.uni-lj.si/svetovi-worlds/article/view/20028
  • Bajič, B., The YouTubable Climb, Svetovi/Worlds, 3(1), 2025, https://journals.uni-lj.si/svetovi-worlds/article/view/20617
  • Đurin, S., From Pasture-Lands to Wilderness, Svetovi/Worlds, 3(1), 2025, https://journals.uni-lj.si/svetovi-worlds/article/view/19568
  • Venäläinen, J., Capturing the Invisible, Svetovi/Worlds, 3(1), 2025, https://journals.uni-lj.si/svetovi-worlds/article/view/20097
  • Svetel, A., Zavratnik, V., Fragile Sustainability or Sustainable Fragility?, Svetovi/Worlds, 3(1), 2025, https://journals.uni-lj.si/svetovi-worlds/article/view/20073
  • Bajič, B., Editorial, Svetovi/Worlds, 3(1), 2025, https://journals.uni-lj.si/svetovi-worlds/article/view/21866
  • Jørgensen, F. A., Perspectives on Environmental Humanities, Svetovi/Worlds, 3(1), 2025, https://journals.uni-lj.si/svetovi-worlds/article/view/21600
  • Venäläinen, J., Algorithmic Landscapes of Finnish Nature, Ethnologia Fennica, 52(1), 2025, https://journals.uni-lj.si/svetovi-worlds/issue/view/1478
  • Ivnik, T., Zaraščanje in upanje v Beneški Sloveniji, University of Ljubljana Press, 2025, https://journal.fi/ethnolfenn/article/view/146712
  • Bajič, B., Digitalna estetizacija narave, Etnolog, 34, 2024, https://ebooks.uni-lj.si/ZalozbaUL/catalog/book/726
  • Abram, S., Siegrist, N., From No-Go to Must-See, Wiley, 2026, https://www.etno-muzej.si/sl/etnolog/etnolog-34-2024/digitalna-estetizacija-narave-med-slikovitim-in-zanimivim
  • Božić, S., Instagramabilna estetika, SIC, 15(1), 2024, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781394278657.ch16
  • Vrbančić, M., Što nakon distopije?, Jesenski i Turk, 2024, https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/325642
  • Oroz, T., Temporal Aspects of Climate Change, La Rochelle Université, 2025, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.univ-larochelle.fr/wp-content/uploads/Publication-RESCUE-finale-juillet-2025.pdf
  • Venäläinen, J., Đurin, S., Svetel, A., Zavratnik, V., Cliffs, Valleys and Duckboards, Berghahn Books, 2026
  • Božić, S., Oroz, T., Never Ending Wait, Berghahn Books, 2026
  • Đurin, S., Stumbles of Fieldwork, Berghahn Books, 2026
  • Oroz, T., Uzburkano mirovanje, 2026
  • Ivnik, T., Forest Overgrowth and Unfolding Hope, 2026, https://ebooks.uni-lj.si/ZalozbaUL/catalog/book/867
  • Seppä, T., Laurén, K., Liikkeellä märillä mailla, Elore, 31(2), 2024, https://journal.fi/elore/article/view/147589
  • Venäläinen, J., Algorithmic Landscapes of Finnish Nature, Ethnologia Fennica, 52(1), 2025, https://journal.fi/ethnolfenn/article/view/146712
  • Venäläinen, J., Seppä, T., Laurén, K., Pitkospuiden hoiva, Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja, 104, 2025, https://oa.finlit.fi/books/e/10.21435/ksvk.104
  • Venäläinen, J., Kaarlenkaski, T., Mutanen, S., Onnellisia lehmiä vai yksinäisiä koneita?, Lähikuva, 38(2), 2025, https://journal.fi/lahikuva/article/view/162556
  • Brocki, M., Gramatyka wizualna katastrofy, Konteksty, 351(4), 2026, https://czasopisma.ispan.pl/index.php/k/article/view/4540
  • Brocki, M., Visual Grammar of Ecological Crisis, Open Semiotics, 5, 2026
  • Brocki, M., Constructing Fragile Environment, Berghahn Books, 2026
  • Sztandara, M., The Oder River’s Slow Death, Berghahn Books, 2026
  • Bajič, B., Graesse, M. K., Becoming Influencer, Berghahn Books, 2026
  • Muršič, R., Sensoria and Sensors, Berghahn Books, 2026
  • Jørgensen, F. A., Repič, J., Experiencing Spatial and Temporal Scales of Environmental Change, Berghahn Books, 2026
  • Ivnik, T., Digital Media as a Tool for Aestheticizing Past Landscapes, Berghahn Books, 2026

 Start date

1 October 2022

Project duration

36 months

 Project budget

€ 1 117 314

Funding organisations