Collaborative Project: Media Arts Cities of the Future

What cultural assets from your city would you preserve for future generations?

In 2022, the City of Sapporo ran “Creative Knock 2022“, a series of CG production workshops for beginners. A local enterprise then incorporated CG motifs designed by the participants into landscape frames of the future Sapporo, based on what they thought would still be in the city in 100 years’ time. And so, the feature “SAPPORO 2122” was born.

The theme of the 15^th UCCN Annual Conference (11^th – 15^th September 2023, Istanbul, Turkey) is “Future-proof Cities“. Moreover, in 2024, we are all excited for the conference to be held in fellow City of Media Arts Braga, Portugal!

As such, Sapporo City is now extending the project to other cities in the cluster to produce “Media Arts Cities of the Future“. Each city will create their own image with a vision of their city in 2122 including the cultural treasures they would like to remain. Sapporo will then incorporate this into one large feature that we can all share.

Our motivations…

International travel has faced various restrictions due to coronavirus, and while these are now being eased, the world is yet to fully recover. There is still an increased need for online media that can be easily accessed globally.

The UNESCO Constitution states that we should assure our heritage be conserved for the future by initiating methods of international cooperation. We feel it would be really meaningful for us to deliver a message on cultural wellbeing in Istanbul by showing our efforts to leave behind a better future for the next generation.

Hopefully, we, the Media Arts Cities, can then provoke a positive ripple effect. Including Sapporo, 18 Media Arts Cities have so far confirmed their participation in the project: Austin, Braga, Changsha, Enghien-les-Bains, Guadalajara, Gwangju, Hamar, Karlsruhe, Košice, Linz, Modena, Namur, Viborg, Santiago de Cali, Tbilisi, Toronto, and York.