About

Carolina Aragón is an associate professor of landscape architecture and serves as the associate department chair at UMass Amherst. She is recognized as an artist and educator who employs public art to transform landscapes, engage communities, and teach students. Her work focuses on using artistic practices to foster community involvement and to create meaningful landscape experiences.

Research topics

• Computer Security
• Psychology
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Geography
• Public relations
• Cognitive psychology
• Neuroscience
• Biology
• Ecology
• Environmental science
• Environmental planning
• Environmental resource management

Selected publications

• Passive Solar Heat Transfer via Photothermal Skins for Capability-Enhancing Building Retrofits

  ACS Applied Engineering Materials · 2026-03-14

  articleCorresponding

  Rising energy costs in dwellings cause a significant negative social impact, creating energy insecurity. In the United States, over 33 million homes report forms of energy insecurity, with over 24 million residents, often renters, reporting reducing or foregoing food or reducing energy consumption to minimize energy costs. Here, we describe a straightforward yet underexplored method of heat generation and delivery, photothermal heating through walls, that can be adopted by individual tenants to improve the thermal conditions of their homes without compromising their health or housing security. We detail a lightweight fabric-based photoactive skin that is designed to be used as a removable additive layer over existing walls, and demonstrate its performance as capability enhancers that passively increase the temperature of indoor environments. Photons are leveraged as a free, widely distributed energy source, a light-absorbing polymer is used to convert the energy contained in photons into heat, and the heat thus generated is directly transported into building interiors through the building envelope. Outdoor tests with physical house models prove that a 4.8 °C increase in interior temperature can be realized over a single day-night cycle by loosely affixing a photoactive skin to one face of the overall building envelope. Building energy simulations reveal that the supplemental heat created by wall photothermal heating can lead to a 15% reduction in heating energy demand for a standard residential building, with a maximum reduction of 23% projected for a large 16-story residential structure in northern latitudes.

  PublisherDOI

• Visualizing Hope: Investigating the Effect of Public Art on Risk Perception and Awareness of Climate Adaptation

  Weather Climate and Society · 2024 · 6 citations

  • Psychology
  • Cognitive psychology
  • Neuroscience

  Abstract To support human flourishing in a climate-changed world, individuals and communities will have to take costly and challenging adaptation actions. Although there is evidence of increasing public concern over climate change, current levels of engagement and adaptation action remain insufficient. There is a need for innovative ways to bring individuals and communities into the climate movement. Public art installations that creatively communicate relevant aspects of the problem may represent one largely untapped pathway to greater levels of engagement. Here, we examined how virtual exposure to a public art installation, FutureSHORELINE , impacted climate change risk perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and emotions. The installation depicted sea level rise impacts and solutions for a shoreline area in Boston, Massachusetts. In study 1 ( N = 474), participants were randomly assigned to view the art in different formats: video, stills, or 360° viewers. Exposure to this installation, in any format, was associated with greater perceived risk of climate change, feelings of personal responsibility to address climate change, and likelihood of engaging in community-led initiatives related to climate change as compared with pre-art-exposure levels. In study 2 ( N = 294), the video was compared, with and without text, with a no-information control. This study revealed that the video impacted emotional reactions to climate change. Public art installations may present a model by which to make information about the local impacts of climate change and proposed adaptation solutions visible to diverse audiences, providing a novel way to increase public concern and engagement. Significance Statement While much climate change art has been created, efforts to systematically evaluate its impacts are sparse. The purpose of this work was to examine how viewing a landscape installation impacted climate change and sea level rise perceptions. Across two studies, we evaluated the impacts of viewing a Boston (Massachusetts)-based landscape installation depicting the impacts of, and a solution to, sea level rise and flooding. Our results highlight the potential usefulness of art as a means of communicating about climate change.

  PublisherDOI

• RisingEMOTIONS: Bridging Art and Technology to Visualize Public’s Emotions about Climate Change

  Creativity and Cognition · 2021 · 15 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science
  • Environmental planning

  In response to the threat posed by sea-level rise, coastal cities must rapidly adapt and transform vulnerable areas to protect endangered communities. As such, raising awareness and engaging affected communities in planning for adaptation strategies is critical. However, in the US, public engagement with climate change is low, especially among underrepresented populations. To address this challenge, we designed and implemented RisingEMOTIONS, a site-specific collaborative art installation situated in East Boston that combines public art with digital technology. The installation depicts the impacts of sea-level rise by visualizing local projected flood levels and the public's emotions toward this threat. The community's engagement with our project demonstrated the potential for public art to create interest and raise awareness of climate change. We discuss the potential for continued growth in the way that digital tools and public art can support equitable resilience planning through increased public engagement.

  PublisherDOI

• The role of landscape installations in climate change communication

  Landscape and Urban Planning · 2019-04-20 · 38 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Mahmood Jasim

  Louisiana State University

  1 shared

• Narges Mahyar

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  1 shared

• Elisabeth Hamin Infield

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  1 shared

• Jane A. Buxton

  Rhode Island Department of Health

  1 shared

• Andrea Mah

  1 shared

• Ezra M. Markowitz

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  1 shared

Labs

• Landscape Architecture and Regional PlanningPI