International Cooperation Futures Festival

the Urban Imaginaries Ottawa project was invited to be a part of the International Cooperation Futures Festival, hosted by Cooperation Canada. The futures festival opened space to ‘Reconnect, Unlearn, Envision and Engage for a Fairer, Safer and More Sustainable World’. For the festival, the Urban Imaginaries Ottawa Project designed two activities: 'The cities we live in’ and 'Imaginaries of desired cities'. Informal conversations with participants of the festival also took place to reflect on the activities and answers.


@ Shaw Centre, Ottawa, October 17-20, 2022

the first activity, ‘The cities we live in’, asked participants to write or draw their answers to a prompt of their choice that described something about their city. These included reflecting on what their city smells like, tastes like, sounds like, looks like, feels like, and their favourite locations.

the second activity, ‘Imaginaries of desired cities’, invited participants to reflect on and explore their desires for the city they would like to live in, as well as some of the barriers that stand in the way. They created colourful imaginary city profiles by choosing shapes that were associated with how their city should make them feel, what personality their dream city would have, and what they would like to see in their ideal city.

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