Have you ever wanted to take part in a large-scale  scientific study or in a big international art project? Well, here’s your chance. We’ve selected the ten websites where you can apply online and participate in various global projects related to arts and/or sciences.

1. The Genographic Project

   Sponsored by National Geographic, this is a landmark study of the human journey. Where do we really come from? And how did we get to where we live today? The Genographic Project is seeking to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species by using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. In this unprecedented and of real-time research effort, the Genographic Project is closing the gaps of what science knows today about humankind’s ancient migration stories.

   Scientists are collaborating with indigenous and traditional peoples around the world to learn more about where we came from and how we got to where we live today. But participation is not restricted to indigenous and traditional peoples; the general public is also invited to join in on the journey. Participation kit costs $99.95 and with it you can sample your own DNA and submit it to the lab. The purchase price also includes the cost of the testing and analysis.

   

   The Genographic Project

2. 15×15 – Be Famous

   Andy Warhol stated that “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” This website is a homage to Andy Warhol and a realization of the artistic utilization of new media technology in the age of digital production. Anyone and everyone can be world famous… for 15 seconds.

   You can contribute to the piece using a standard mobile camera phone that can capture video, and send clips directly from your phone using MMS service, via email or upload from your pc to the online database. The clips can be portraits, experiential, vignettes, experimental, of love, of life, of anything, from banal to downright bizarre.

   15×15 will be disseminated via the web and exhibited in galleries and projected in spaces around the world.

   15×15 – Be Famous

3. TURNS

   Turns is a web project which encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to reflect on a major event that changed their lives. It asks, what is the turning point choice you made in the past that still influences the present? How does that event relate to those of others?

   The project is a ‘community building” one focused on the collection and sharing of a life story which stands out as an experience so significant that a decision resulted which turned your life’s direction: perhaps it was a transformative insight from an extreme experience or crisis; the sudden perception of the essential nature or meaning of events. Such a critical experience may have produced a change in your original identity and may propose to you the mapping of new journeys.

   By sharing your experience, you are enabled to explore your narrative though related databases linked to sites where you can explore your personal story in the context of links to others. You may also interpret it through various lenses such as gender and ethnicity. In this way, T U R N S provides the opportunity for public access to research into lives lived under many different circumstances and time periods, seen through many different kinds of perspectives.

   

   TURNS

4. The Point

   Although not a historical project, The Point is an online platform for collective activism, and it operates globally. If you want to make a change, this is the place to start. As a consumer, employee, citizen, activist, parent, or whatever, sometimes you can’t do things alone – you need the power of many. The Point offers a new approach to leveraging the influence of groups and making things happen. It is a website for organizing group actions that are activated once enough participants commit to reach a “tipping point” that ensures success.

   Anyone can create a campaign for free. Whether you’re asking people to do something or give money, people only contribute if they think it makes a difference. On The Point, all campaigns have a “tipping point” — people pledge to give money or do something, but no one does a thing until the conditions are met to make contributions worthwhile. That way, you can gather all the resources needed to be successful before anyone is asked to take action. The Point aims to fix the problems with online petitions, mass letter-writing tools, or many fundraising efforts — it’s not clear how participation translates into results.

   Campaigns on The Point are results-oriented, create real incentives for change, and only ask people to act when it actually makes a difference. The Point rethinks group action from the ground up to leverage the Web, opening the door for solving problems that couldn’t be addressed otherwise.

   The campaign widget allows you to take your campaign anywhere, including your website, blog, or social networks like MySpace.

   The Point

5. Global Music Project

   Global Music Project represents a collaborative international network of music fans, artists, progressive businesses, social activists, event promoters, and others who believe .. in the power of music to attract, educate, and inspire humanity to participate in making a better world. Their main programs are music preservation and music discovery.

   Global Music Project’s objectives are simple:

   • Record music and video footage from developing cultures throughout the world.
   • Promote, market, and distribute these recordings globally.
   • Continue to expand our internet community and global web presence, so we can reach artists who wish to showcase their work and connect them to a global audience.

   Global Music Project is spreading around the world and are looking for people in your area that can volunteer a little bit of their time and/or resources. You can help make a difference in the world.

   

   Global Music Project

6. Global Interactive Art Event

   Art Therapy is a 20th century profession with its roots in ancient times and in creating in order to cope with pain.  The International Art Therapy Organization and the Art Therapy Alliance are sponsoring a global interactive event called “Art Peace Sustainability.”

   Everyone is invited to submit postcard-sized format [5 x 8 inch] works reflecting these concepts for this event. You also can make “response art” inspired by the following questions:

   • Does art therapy impact peace and sustainability on the planet?
   • How do art, peace, and sustainability intersect?
   • Does the creative process of art making resolve conflicts?
   • Does art therapy build and sustain community?
   • Is art therapy a “green” practice?

   You can create as many artworks as you want to and participate in two ways:
   1) create your image, make an electronic scan or digital photo, and send by email or
   2) create your work on Polyvore.com and submit to the Art Peace Sustainability Event web gallery.

   Watch “Art Peace Sustainability Interactive Art Event” and get inspired.

   Global Interactive Art Event

7. Faces of Millions

   Faces of Millions is a project which aims to create the biggest photo mosaic yet, that will be about 30x30ft big (approx. 10x10m or 3 stories high). It will be made of about 300 usual size posters, which will have fingernail sized photos of you your friends and all the other people who take part (about a million of them).

   You can participate by going to Faces of Millions homepage and uploading your photo.

   

   Faces of Millions

8. The Bathroom Mirror Project
   

   Here is a totally useless, global and non-commercial art project that needs your participation! Why men are inclined to take their pictures in bathroom mirrors alone in hotel rooms or on vacation. Time for a global check-up  of this devoted extravagance. An art project if you like.

   Participate (free of charge) in the online gallery by submitting an email with
   1) your bathroom mirror self portrait (preferably horizontal) and
   2) your outstanding reflections on your daily round in front of the mirror (in English please),
   3) your name or alias,
   4) city & country where the picture was shot,
   5) date & time for the occasion.

   Take your time, be inventive, be bold and personal. Bring matters to a head, another point of view by the side of the road. Thanks for your contribution! Spread the word!

   

   The Bathroom Mirror Project

9. The Global Art Project

   This is an International Art Exchange for Peace. Here’s how it works: Participants create a work of art in any medium, expressing their vision of global peace and goodwill. The art is displayed locally in each participant’s community. Global Art Project then organizes an international exchange by matching participants—group-to-group and individual-to-individual.

   The exchange occurs April 23-30 biennially, resulting in thousands of people sending messages of Peace around the world at one time—visions of unity simultaneously encircle the Earth. The art is sent as a gift of global friendship and exhibited in the receiving community. Participants may send documentation of the art created and of the people who came together to create the art to the GAP Art Bank. Global Art Project exhibitions, books, slide presentations, and this website give people an opportunity to experience visions of peace and unity created by individuals from diverse cultures around the world.

   The Global Art Project

10. 100 People: A World Portrait

    A very interesting online project that involves schools internationally, in an attempt to create a world portrait. The 100 People Foundation helps students to better understand the complex issues facing our planet and the resources we share. By framing the global population as 100 people, the media makes education more engaging and effective, and improves students’ abilities to remember and relate to what they learn.

    By traveling the globe to meet and create portraits of the 100 people representing all 6.7 billion of us sharing the planet, it is their vision is to create documentary films, photography, and educational tools that facilitate face-to-face introductions among the people of the world in ways that cultivate respect, create dialogue, and inspire global citizenship.

    100 People: A World Portrait

11. Constructing Co-Existence: A Global Street Art Movement

    Non-participation in systems of oppression is one key to constructing co-existence…  For many, Mahatma Gandhi was  the symbol of this struggle. Constructing Co-Existence is an international exterior paint/paste project intended to raise street art and its appreciators to their next level of authenticity.

    To participate in this project:
    1) download the Gandhi image.
    2) construct a little (or a BIG) coexistence project in your city & neighborhood, where ever it may be…

    Its fun to find Gandhi in all these photos from around the globe! We all need to coexist!

    

    Constructing Co-Existence: A Global Street Art Movement

If you know of any other interesting studies or creative projects open for participation to the general public, feel free to post a link in the comments. Thanks.

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