Hyperlocal Imaginaries at sIREN Conference 2017

For some time now, the act of seeing the city differently has been the work of imaginative projections created by artists, architects and visual designers. They can offer critical comment on existing city conditions, from subtle changes of the everyday through to radical new futures.

The ways in which we define and engage with the digital layers of the city, and thus city imaginaries is changing. Visions of the future no longer lie exclusively in the hands of architects, designers and urban planners. Publications such as Lucy Bullivant’s 4D HYPERLOCAL published earlier this year, are opening-up the dialogue on the potential of citizen-led ‘city making’ in today’s platform society.

Claire McAndrew and Prof Paul Sermon at the University of Brighton presented Hyperlocal Imaginaries at sIREN Conference 2017: Arts and Digital Practices held at Edinburgh College of Art. It considered the potential of fictional futures, those created and experienced across two cities through an interactive, telepresent installation. It directly references the project 3×4, that makes use of a telematic installation operating between two cities as an open, digital platform that allows a bottom-up, local approach to creating and experiencing new urban imaginaries.

Hyperlocal Imaginaries can be found in the book of abstracts [pdf] accompanying sIREN 2017.