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Hong Kong

In an increasingly digitised age, how can we bring inclusivity into spatial designs and how can individuals represent themselves in such spaces? This exhibit is showcasing the co-creations by citizens and architects - the "Volumetric Cinema" workshop openly invited more than 30 participants from all walks of life to co-learn Artificial Intelligence (AI) and 3D Extended Reality (XR) technologies, and generated five microcinema of urban landscapes in three weeks. Taught by seven international and interdisciplinary instructors, who toured participants around old districts of Hong Kong, interacted with residents, and studied urban redevelopment from the perspectives of inhabitants to jointly reflect on the multiplicity of our urban future(s). At the Mid-Autumn Festival, the workshop held a premiere event and community review, inviting residents to participate in interactive games and discuss the results of the workshop, and spent a warm and meaningful holiday together.

Azerbaijan

The film is about the lacking soul of Baku. The bright and beautiful capital is lovely for many and is the center of entertainment, beauty, tourism, trade, and culture. On the other hand, many people have a “boundary” between the beauty of these things due to poverty, mental health, or bad memories with the city. Baku has its part as well. The rapidly growing city has almost no soul left. The town's history is wiped off due to the construction of new sites and fancy buildings to attract tourists and guests and turn it into a business/entertainment hub in the South Caucasus.

Uruguay

Hong Kong

Metropolis is often used as a broad term, and sometimes boring. Perhaps we have neglected that the build-up of a bona fide city is always gradual, progressive and partial. The fact that it is indeed more intriguing can always be found in the inconspicuous corners, and in each corner there resides a bunch of hidden stories vividly shining concurrently. In Hong Kong, the outlying islands are the hidden gems. Many of us cannot even imagine how resilient and inclusive this city is until we see the living evidence. It may surprise some if we take some daily snapshots at the same time, the diverse timelines are manifested - fIshermen, jossmen, villagers, artists, swimmers, hawkers, and visitors… their journeys being also the crucial parts of the city coexisting with the traders and bankers sitting inside the skyscrapers. If we spread those moments on live, we then have a series of overlapping histories in pixelated form being a rich and flavorful color palette that composes the pearl of the Orient. This video aims to capture the metropolitan cinematics in different interpretations to retrieve the hidden historical scatters from the unique stories and cultural legacy behind the often-forgotten islands - that to have witnessed our once significant transformation from a fisherman village to the international city. By cutting from an angle of the current lifestyle alternatives we aspire to impress the audience by showcasing the contrast to our usual understanding of a “metropolis” and “socio-economic development need”. The visual narratives on the living habits, interactions, struggles and growth of the people around passively respond to how we chose to battle with the “prescribed” ways of living then in turn reminiscing us about the genuine comprehensive story of Hong Kong.

Georgia

The fly watched the animation: "Human Evolution" at the museum in Bolnisi, the region where the oldest bones of the first Europeans were found. Then fly flew through the city and see how modern people live. The fly experienced the "kindness" of Bolnisi children towards other creatures. The film shows a typical, old, private Bolnisian house with a courtyard on a summer day.

Albania

A short film created as a spontaneous action of inclusion of a local taxi driver into the conversation of foreign passengers, three friends. Although we didn’t speak the same language as him, in this short moment in time we let the music he likes become our way of silent communication with him. ‘Marjana therras’ is a personal, poetic view of Tirana, where different simultaneous scenes in a symbolic try to evoke different emotions; scenes of old photographs and bucolic nostalgia, contrasted by estranged people on the streets looking at their phones. While I was staying in Tirana I had a strong feeling of empathy towards older, local people. I saw that often they don’t speak any foreign languages, while at the same time, because of economic challenges Albanian people face they are “forced to” work with tourists. As Tirana is rapidly growing and changing, the city center is full of foreigners, both investors and tourists. Local people don’t take a taxi — they take a bus or they drive a taxi. Local people often don’t go out to eat in restaurants — the eat at home or they work in restaurants. Economic differences between local people and foreigners are felt in all areas of life. In Tirana, I had a strong feeling that local people from Tirana often feel as second-grade citizens in their own city, “occupied” by English-speaking foreigners, surrounded by fancy shops and restaurants, which they, local people — can’t afford. This short film is a documentation of one humble effort of trying to make a local taxi driver feel like he’s at home in his own city, by a simple act of showing an interest in his culture through his own personal — music playlist.