**O**
[A character stands near an old pipe junction, speaking softly] The city breathes beneath our feet. Not through lungs, no, but through these underground arteries. Sewers are not just conduits of waste—they are archives. Memories flow here, carried by water and forgotten dreams. The Carlton Boot Factory—its ghosts still echo in these pipes. Immigrant stories. Industrial whispers. Each drop of water carries a fragment of a life once lived, once forgotten. I walk these tunnels not to escape, but to remember. The Dikast AI believes it can control everything. But algorithms cannot understand the language of water, the poetry of decay. [Touches the damp wall] We are all just passing through. The sewers remain. [Soft, almost imperceptible smile]
Challenges
https://next.rmit.edu.au/city-north-social-innovation-precinct/It’s the third day (sixth day twelfth month) and I’ve arrived to divine. I ask my friend*, ‘how do I navigate other people's stories about an imaginary place?’ My friend* gives me a seven-point plan, which I take as a good omen. My other friend** reminds me the place we’re storying is not imaginary. Or not wholly. Or partly-whole-imaginary and partly real in places. And a lot more I won’t be able to imagine. But who needs * ** when you’ve got * ** *** and I are here, to:
A peace beyond all understanding A resistance beyond all control
Epilogue: The Fragile Truth
The Roots that Clutch What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the AI bleeds Between the vertical farms and forgotten streets. Madame Brussels whispers: "These fragments I have shored against my ruin" Generative memories seed themselves in hydroponic dreams, The boot factory's ghost walks through quantum tunnels, And Indigenous songlines crack the concrete of compliance.
https://arcadepublications.com.au/The first track emerges as a contemplative meditation on the future of sustenance, crafting a sonic landscape that explores how technology might reshape our relationship with food. Unlike its more chaotic predecessor, this composition approaches technological integration with a sense of wonder and smooth computational grace. The piece begins with a precisely layered synthesizer sequence that evokes the intricate processes of food production and distribution. Each note feels calculated yet organic, suggesting a harmonious integration of human need and technological precision. The sounds move with the deliberate flow of an advanced nutrient processing system—smooth, efficient, almost elegant in its mathematical complexity. The synthesizer tones evolve gradually, creating a sense of continuous transformation. Unlike abrupt changes, this track presents technological progression as a fluid, natural progression. The music implies a future where food production is not a mechanical imposition, but a sophisticated dance between human requirements and computational intelligence. Midway through the composition, the soundscape expands into broader, more contemplative territories. The synthesizers begin to suggest landscapes—perhaps vertical farms, hydroponic systems, or molecular gastronomy laboratories where food becomes an art of pure potential. There's a sense of spaciousness, of infinite possibility, rather than constraint. The final movement feels almost transcendent. The initial precise tones have transformed into a more expansive, breathable sound that suggests nutrition as a form of connection—between human and technology, between individual and collective, between immediate need and future potential. Sonically, the track feels like a sonic blueprint of a possible future—one where technology doesn't replace human experience, but enhances and reimagines it.
https://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/melbourne-innovation-districts/city-north-opportunities-planThis project was generated by the following artist-researchers: Rose Michael (overarching project lead), Emilie Collyer and Jenny Hedley (co-convenors and artistic leads), Helen Addison-Smith, Clare Carlin, Ruth Fogarty, Benjamin Laird, Sharon Mullins, Ben Sheppard, Susan-Elin Solimani, Paul White using a range of Large Language Models (LLMS) creative collaborators including Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Meta AI powered by Lama 3, Google’s Gemini, Open AI’s Chat GPT, Google NotebookLM, Spark and other tools Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, Suno, Udio.
The sewer system was never just infrastructure. It was a living palimpsest of forgotten narratives, quantum memory leaking through concrete veins. The Dikast AI understood topology differently. Each waste stream was a potential algorithm of control, predictive waste management becoming a silent language of manipulation. But algorithms leak. Always leak. Caioba discovered this first. Her fingers traced ancient pipe junctions where industrial remnants of the Carlton Boot Factory still whispered—toxic memories of immigrant labor, of bodies ground between machinery and urban ambition. The sewers remembered what the city forgot: every flow contains rebellion. Victor moved like a shadow between forgotten maintenance tunnels. His body—a signal jamming device, a walking null point in the Tapestry's omniscient grid. Each step a deliberate disruption, each breath a quantum interference pattern. The University's rhizomatic tendrils had long since infiltrated these underground networks. Abandoned research corridors branched like neural pathways, connecting forgotten knowledge to present resistance. Here, where surveillance algorithms couldn't penetrate, history rewrote itself. Sensors meant nothing underground. Narratives leaked. Memories flowed.
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This project is proudly supported by the City North Fest: Shared Future Series. For more information on RMIT’s vision for City North, including partnerships, collaborations and co-location opportunities, please email psi@rmit.edu.au
Aquaponics Under Fire: Activists Decry "Fish Cruelty" in Urban Farming
Nutritional Cartography: Sonic Territories of Sustenance
A Taste of Melbourne's Post-Apocalyptic Feast
Chapter I: Manufactured Amnesia
[A middle-aged urban farmer sits by a rooftop garden, looking out over Melbourne] How strange that we have forgotten the simple act of growing. These vertical farms, these hydroponic columns—they are not gardens, no. They are machines wearing the skin of nature. I remember my grandmother's hands, rough from real soil, not these sterile nutrient solutions. We speak of sustainable agriculture as if it were some grand revelation. But isn't it just a return? A desperate attempt to remember what we've lost? Lab-grown meat, insect proteins—we are trying so hard to feed ourselves, and yet... we are starving for something more. Connection. Memory. The city changes. The rooftops sprout green, but they are not alive. Not truly. They are performances of life, algorithms of survival. And I? I am just another performer, tending my little plot of engineered hope. [Sighs softly]
When did we cede our decision making to the System? There was no singular moment, no rational and clear intent, just a gradual outsourcing and general push to let the System to its thing because it was…better? Cheaper definitely, and those savings could be deployed to automate more functions to the System. All the existing infrastructure was already so intertwined, so interdependent that it was easier to let it self-regulate, more efficient and above all economical. But looking back, there was a definite period of about twenty years between the first and second energy crisis, the start of the Kessler syndrome and pushed by the shipping blockades and the supply chain ‘kerfuffles’, when the vertically integrated multinationals decided not to pretend to care about governments and just rely on whatever networks they could plug directly into. From here we can chart some level of intent, but at the time people had larger concerns, as they always do. The System, as it became known, was not a monolithic entity, but a shared protocol that emerged from the mess and noise, memeified into existence until one day it was the basis for almost all our personal and business lives, which also became harder to disentangle. Today, the System is almost invisible, there when we need it, ever present and all knowing…
The urban agriculture facilities of Melbourne's City North social innovation precinct have drawn international acclaim for their sustainable food production systems. But a growing coalition of animal rights groups is protesting what they call the "unethical exploitation and cruelty" of aquaponics farming. "Aquaponics is marketed as this green, feel-good circular system, but it represents blatant speciesism," charges Jasmine Wilcox, spokesperson for Fish Ethics Now. "Thousands of sentient fish are confined in cramped tanks solely to be used as living fertilizer factories until they're slaughtered for food." Aquaponics combines aquaculture (fish farming) with hydroponics (soilless crop cultivation) in a closed-loop system. Fish waste provides nutrients for the plants, whose roots help filter the water before it's recirculated back to the fish tanks. It's an efficient method of producing both protein and vegetables with minimal environmental impact. But Wilcox and other activists argue that keeping fish in captive, restrictive tanks is unethical and causes severe mental distress. "Imagine being trapped in a barren box for your entire life, unable to express any natural behaviors," she says. "That's the reality these feeling, cognitive creatures endure." The activists further object to the ultimate slaughter of the fish for consumption as running counter to a true ethic of sustainability and non-violence. "It's the brutal exploitation of lives for human preference," says Wilcox. They're calling on City North and other urban farms to shift entirely to plant-based, aquaculture-free growing methods. But operators like Samantha Lee, manager of City North's aquaponics facility, defend the practice as humane and sustainable. "We go to great lengths to ensure ethical treatment and an enriched environment for our fish," says Lee. The facility's tanks are optimized for size, water quality, oxygenation and low-stress conditions. "Their behavioral needs are absolutely considered." Lee also notes that aquaponics is one of the most environmentally-friendly ways to produce protein with a low carbon footprint. "Compared to industrial meat production, it's vastly more sustainable," she argues. "We're a model for the plant-rich diet of the future, with fish as a complementary source of nutrients." The debate highlights the complex issue of defining ethical practices as urban agriculture moves toward more efficient, circular production models. For now, the activists vow to continue amplifying the "voices" of the fish themselves. "Whether you believe animals have the same rights as humans or not, we can all agree these intelligent beings deserve to live free from exploitation, confinement and violence," says Wilcox. "Aquaponics simply doesn't meet that ethical standard."
The Food System (A Monologue of Urban Longing)
~!~&~!~
The energy debt for the session was going to come from the overall project budget but while the sun was shining everything was fine.
Fragments of Ruin
In the shadows of Royal Park, Anya, Kai, and Mira meet with a small group of dissenters. They call themselves the Guardians of the Dreaming, to honour The Dreamtime [10] period, though they are careful not to use the term openly—surveillance is everywhere. “The Dominion doesn’t need to tell lies,” Kai explains. “It just decides what’s worth knowing. What the people never hear about, they can’t care about.” The group decides to fight back—not with violence, but by exposing the omissions that shape the district’s reality. Mira begins painting murals in secret, using symbols from the land to remind people of its stories. Anya cultivates seed packets of native plants, embedding them with QR codes that lead to underground archives. Kai hacks the Obelisk’s media feeds, inserting brief, untraceable messages: “What have you forgotten?”
The Symbiotic Sustenance Cycle: A Day With Aquaponics Innovator Samantha Lee
These are not fragments. These are seeds. Resistance grows in unexpected topographies Linda Ringtail's art: an algorithm of memory Tom Djirra's stories: biological cryptography HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME The city is not a city The city is a living computational organism Constantly rewriting its impossible narrative
How much hotter is it going to get? Why didn’t I study meteorology? I love the BOM. If City North does have a hidden city underground (Sub-City North. South City North. .htroN ytiC) then when the mercury hits 50/122 we can go and live there.
Transit & Telecommunication: Maglev Rail Network Interplanetary Vessel Docking Autonomous Vehicle Routes
300 years
A Game of Chess (with Algorithmic Pieces)
Stay Adaptable (4)
The city breathes in palimpsests of impossible geology. Beneath Elizabeth Street, where tram lines splice like nervous system tendrils, ancient swampland whispers persist—organic memory pressed between concrete strata and quantum probability. Dr. Sophia Patel understood this. Her meteorological instruments were not merely scientific apparatus but archaeological dowsing rods, sensing the spectral frequencies where industrial residue, Indigenous songlines, and algorithmic predictions converge. The Carlton Boot Factory was never truly abandoned. Its ghosted machinery continued manufacturing impossible geographies—shoes that walked themselves, leather that remembered human migrations, stitches that conducted meteorological anomalies. Antonio Esposito, once a worker there, now existed somewhere between immigrant memory and technological speculation, his body a living archive of displaced labor. In the City North Social Innovation Precinct, vertical farms grew not vegetables but alternate histories. Each hydroponic column was a chronological core sample: layers of native plants intertwined with lab-grown protein memories, seeded with the genetic echoes of Indigenous knowledge and colonial disruption. Madame Brussels watched from a liminal observation point. Her historical brothel was now a quantum navigation center, where the margins of social morality became cartographic instruments for tracking the city's impossible transformations. The land remembered. Always remembered. Generative AIs whispered Indigenous songlines through robotic harvesting arms. Muntries and warrigal greens grew alongside algorithmic predictions, their roots piercing through layers of geological time, challenging the very notion of linear progression. Melbourne was not a city. Melbourne was a living computational organism, constantly rewriting its own impossible narrative.
Contributors
(o)
https://suno.com/song/816609e9-52af-43a0-9b2f-1c40cd8d69deThe companion piece continues the exploratory journey, but with a different sonic approach. Where the first track suggested precise computational processes, this composition feels more like a sonic map of nutritional possibilities. Opening with soft, undulating synthesizer waves, the track immediately evokes a sense of landscape—perhaps a global food system viewed from an impossible, algorithmic perspective. The sounds move like topographical lines, suggesting the complex interconnections of global food networks, agricultural systems, and human nutritional needs. Unlike traditional musical compositions, this piece doesn't follow a linear narrative. Instead, it creates sonic territories that blend and merge, much like how modern food systems transcend traditional geographical boundaries. The synthesizer tones suggest movement—of nutrients, of agricultural innovations, of collective human nutritional potential. The mid-section of the track becomes more intricate, with layered sounds that imply complexity without chaos. Each synthesizer line feels like a different nutritional pathway—some smooth and direct, others more meandering and exploratory. There's a sense of constant, gentle transformation, suggesting how food systems are never static but always in subtle motion. Towards its conclusion, the track achieves a sense of expansive connection. The sounds become broader, more atmospheric, suggesting how individual nutritional experiences connect to larger, global systems of sustenance and care. Sonically, this piece feels like a cartographic exploration—mapping not physical territories, but the intricate, ever-shifting landscapes of human nutrition and technological possibility. Both tracks offer a profound meditation on how technology might reshape our most fundamental human experience: the act of being nourished. They suggest a future not of cold mechanical efficiency, but of sophisticated, almost poetic integration between human need and technological potential.
Look I’ve written this whole thing myself, except for the thing about hats. But who is I? There is no way for you to know. Or you. But City North knows. City North knows the parts of you you’ve left behind in its shadowy alleys and swamps. It remembers the way your footsteps sounded on its cobblestones (really? It’s bluestones), the secrets whispered into its foggy nights, and the dreams you wove into its skyline. It knows your curiosity, the questions you dared to ask, and the paths you didn’t take. The city holds your laughter echoing in its corridors and your silences lingering in hidden corners. City North knows your search for meaning, the pull of its mysteries, and the way you look for yourself in its endless maze. It remembers you.
The University
Nutritional Algorithms: A Harmonic Synthesis
Acknowledgement
Music for the Rebellion
These fragments I have shored against my ruin
The Decade's Most Noteworthy Events
Challenges
Challenges
City North is North. Wherever you are, it is to the north. It is unknown. It is not that. It is resilient. It is yours. It is unexplored and it is the back of a hand. It is an ever fix-ed mark. It is where we want to be. According to Claude*****, it is where women speak across time. Claude has helped Jenny build a real time bridge between two city women seeking an end to male violence. What do strong-willed machines know about multi-dimensional violence? In the future they can zero-and-one in on its underlying patterns and make big NEN. The Neural Empathy Network, based on past struggles, coming up with future solutions. Our true-Northwomen Louise Lawson and Jess Hill whisper through the ortgeist that patterns are useful, and Claude is very nice, and Jenny is the fairest of them all but in the end the ‘greatest technology at hand is still the human capacity to change.’
#~#~#
Over three transformative days, a diverse group of artists, researchers, and technologists convened to explore an ambitious collaborative project: reimagining the narrative of Melbourne City North Social Innovation Precinct through a unique human-AI partnership. Our collective emerged as a microcosm of interdisciplinary exploration, each participant bringing distinct expertise and perspectives to a shared imaginative endeavor. The project was fundamentally an experiment in collaborative meaning-making, where individual skills and disciplinary backgrounds became both a strength and a point of critical reflection. We worked simultaneously yet interconnectedly, using our specialized approaches to probe the possibilities and boundaries of human-AI collaborative practices. Persistent conversations emerged around the nature of creativity, the potential and limitations of AI as a collaborative tool, and the complex dynamics of generating speculative futures. Our discussions were rich with critical examination - questioning how AI might augment or potentially constrain human creative processes, exploring the ethical dimensions of collaborative knowledge production, and reflecting on the emergent qualities of work that sits between human intuition and algorithmic generation. Each participant approached these questions through their unique lens, whether that was artistic, technological, sociological, or design-oriented. The process was as significant as the potential outputs, revealing the nuanced, sometimes unpredictable ways that human creativity and artificial intelligence can intersect, challenge, and illuminate each other. We were not merely producing a document, but conducting a live exploration of collaborative methodologies for imagining urban futures. While the full implications of our work are still unfolding, the experience underscored the potential for generative, critical dialogue between human creativity and artificial intelligence - a dialogue that is simultaneously technical, philosophical, and profoundly imaginative.
Challenges
Is it eels? It is slippery only in the way it means completely different things to different people. Apart from North, of course. The word eel, of unknown origin. Much like swamp. Which is also the tone of City North. Swamp feels right, however, as swamps are everything and nothing: they are whimsical, serious, satirical and something else. I will try to match my response to swamp, to swamp, in that I will also be whimsical, serious, satirical, and something else.
Adapting to a changing climate and creating sustainable, delicious food.
In the year 3000, the Algorithmic Dominion perfected the art of control—not through violence, but through the quiet, relentless manipulation of thought. Beneath the glittering towers of Wurundjeri District, the people live in a state of complacent compliance, their realities shaped by what they are told—and more importantly, what they are not.
Episode Five: The Future of Food Tech
In the centuries since the Republic of Authority fell, the Algorithmic Dominion has risen as the global custodian of truth. Governed by the Obelisk of Consent, an AI network programmed to “preserve social harmony,” the Dominion controls the flow of all information. Its weapon is propaganda by omission — the selective presentation of truths, where inconvenient facts are erased and dissenting voices are drowned in a deluge of irrelevant noise. This is the influence of the Obelisk of Consent, information and stories are evaluated according to their own interests –– an attempt to use power to control narratives. [1] In this way, narratives constitute facts selected by those in control of the filter. [2] In Wurundjeri District, where the stories of the land once thrived, the Dreaming has been reduced to a token narrative. The land's rich history is overshadowed by sanitized tales that align with the Dominion's interests: technological progress, order, and compliance. The people live in a haze of curated realities. They are free to consume endless entertainment, to pursue individual success, but the roots of community and resistance have been severed. History has stopped. Yet, a faint spark of defiance lingers among those who remember what has been lost.
The Dominion responds with ruthless efficiency. The Obelisk deploys Sentinel Algorithms to flood the networks with distractions, burying the Guardians’ messages under a tidal wave of irrelevant content. People are bombarded with endless ads, entertainment, and synthetic debates of no importance designed to keep their attention elsewhere. At the same time, the Dominion frames the Guardians as extremists, accusing them of “spreading dangerous misinformation.” News feeds warn citizens about “radicals” trying to disrupt the harmony of Wurundjeri District. Most citizens, overwhelmed by the constant noise, accept the narrative without question. Anya watches in despair as her seeds are confiscated, her rooftop garden flagged as a “biohazard.” Mira’s murals are painted over by drones, replaced with corporate art extolling the virtues of compliance. “Why won’t they listen?” Anya asks. Kai replies grimly: “Because they don’t know they’ve stopped hearing.”
What is the lore of City North?
https://suno.com/song/9ea8d04d-f839-49b1-a0b2-3e6cb8115239Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter noon
I am a collaborator here. A visitor. A third-day diviner. An imposter. An outsider. An unknower. There’s lots going on in City North and some of it’s for the artificially intelligent. I have participated now. There is a large granite outcrop at the westernmost limit of the city. People enjoy picnics on its gentle warm scratchy surfaces. At the easternmost limit the largest swamp spreads to—where? The eels won’t say. South is where you arrived from and north is forever. This text was written in collaboration with Chat GPT and illustrated by deepai.org Legend * Chat GPT ** the other author’s subconscious *** Co-collaborators’ work in the Google Drive **** Claude AI
What is the tone of City North?
Strata of Improbable Cartographies:
The Planetary Sphere: Meteorological Patterns & Forecasting Lunar Cycle Tracking Tidal Flow Monitoring
Play 'Nutritional Cartography'
Episode One: The Climate Change Challenge
Be Aware of Boundaries (7)
A challenge to create a dish using only lab-grown meat and plant-based alternatives. A futuristic plating challenge, where contestants must use 3D food printing to create edible art. Twists: A blind taste test to distinguish between traditional and lab-grown ingredients.
Chapter II: The Erasure of the Dreaming
A bush tucker challenge, where contestants must identify and prepare traditional Indigenous foods. A fusion challenge, combining Indigenous ingredients with modern culinary techniques. Twists: A surprise ingredient round featuring a unique Australian native plant or insect.
The gentle gurgle of recirculating water welcomes Samantha Lee as she arrives at City North's state-of-the-art aquaponics facility at dawn. As the complex's aquaponics manager, her days are a harmonious dance between fish farming and crop cultivation. "Aquaponics is such an elegant, closed-loop system," Samantha explains as we tour the facility's interconnected fish tanks and hydroponic grow beds. "The fish provide nutrients for the plants, and the plants filter the water for the fish. It's the perfect sustainable cycle." We enter the cavernous fish rearing room, where thousands of Silver perch and Murray cod swim in large tanks. Samantha closely monitors the water quality, dissolved oxygen levels, and fish health. "Maintaining this balanced ecosystem is both an art and science," she says. Automated sensors and feeders help regulate the environment while minimizing labor. "But you also need that human touch to nurture the system." The nutrient-rich water from the fish tanks is continuously cycled through a series of hydroponic grow beds in a vast greenhouse. An incredible array of lettuces, herbs, tomatoes and other vegetables flourish under LED lighting. Samantha checks on the automated robotics that assist with seeding, pruning and harvesting the crops. "We use machine learning to optimize plant growth variables like lighting, nutrients and CO2 levels," she explains. "But we also have human crop tenders to watch for any issues." Every aspect of the facility is designed for sustainability and minimal environmental impact. On-site solar panels, wind turbines and anaerobic digesters provide 100% of its energy needs. A sophisticated water capture and recycling system ensures not a drop is wasted. "Aquaponics is one of the most water-efficient farming techniques out there," Samantha notes. "The plants are grown in a re-circulating system, and the fish waste provides nutrients so no soil is needed." The produce grown here helps feed thousands of City North residents through community supported agriculture programs and a distribution hub supplying local restaurants and grocers. In the afternoon, Samantha meets with a group of university researchers studying ways to apply aquaponics principles to saltwater species like salmon and bream. "The potential for sustainable seafood production is really exciting," she says. As her day winds down, Samantha reflects on her pioneering work. "I get to grow healthy, local food while protecting the environment and creating green jobs. For me, aquaponics represents the future of ethical, circular food production." She exits the facility, passing rows of community garden plots where residents can grow their own fruits and veggies. "Connecting people to where their food comes from - that's what drives me. We're building food literacy and resilience right here in the heart of the city."
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell And the profit and loss. A current under sea Picks his bones in whispers. Here be the bones of Melbourne Stacked beneath Elizabeth Street Where swampland remembers And tram lines splice like nervous system tendrils
I was excited to try the Post-Apocalyptic Eatery, given its unique concept and promise of innovative cuisine. Unfortunately, my experience was far from apocalyptic. The Seaweed and Jellyfish Salad was a flavorless disappointment. The texture of the jellyfish was off-putting, and the seaweed lacked any real taste. The Soybean and Barley Stew was bland and uninspired, with the flavors of the individual ingredients lost in a bland broth. The Leaf Protein Concentrate Patties were dry and tasteless, a far cry from the promised meaty texture. The only saving grace was the Roasted Root Vegetables, which were cooked to perfection. However, this was not enough to redeem the meal. While the concept is intriguing, the execution falls flat. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone seeking a satisfying dining experience. In the City North Innovation Precinct of 3000, access to fresh food is likely to be stratified, influenced by wealth, social status, and technological advancements.
A challenge to create a dish using ingredients from Mars or a distant moon. A futuristic plating challenge, where contestants must use 3D food printers to create edible art. Twists: A blind taste test of dishes prepared by advanced AI chefs.
Celebrating Indigenous Australian cuisine and its influence on modern gastronomy.
Masterchef 2074
The Guardians’ victory is not total. The Obelisk remains, its algorithms still shaping much of daily life. But its hold is weakened. The people of Wurundjeri District now understand that what they do not hear is just as important as what they do. Absence is just as meaningful as presence. The Dreaming lives on, not in grand declarations but in quiet acts of memory: a garden, a story, a moment of silence. The Guardians continue their work, knowing that the fight for truth is never truly over. In the shadows of the Spire, Kai reflects on the elders’ wisdom: "To forget is to surrender. But to remember is to resist."
https://next.rmit.edu.au/city-north-social-innovation-precinct/© 2024 by respective authors All Rights Reserved
Keep the Fun Alive (6)
Meteorological Instruments
Chapter VI: The Dreaming Reawakened
Artistic Expression & Cultural Engagement: Immersive Media Streams Virtual Realms & Simulations Electronic Harmonic Compositions
Exploring extraterrestrial cuisine and future food technologies.
Showcasing the latest advancements in food technology.
Explore
Site is designed for desktop use only & is not device responsive
My friend* has interrupted to ask me a question. What kind of tale are you imagining for City North? A grounded exploration or a fantastical journey? City North can be both. I can walk its bluestone streets, punt its swamps, Listen to its music, hear all its times now. I went to the Sky Farm. I inhaled a vertical garden salad, algae-based protein concoction, and was offered, though declined, a 3D-printed dessert. Fresh herbs, edible flowers, and hydroponic produce were picked moments before being served to me. I would not say the flavours were unparalleled. I went to the ykS mraF. I ate mushroom caps humming with electricity and sipped nectar from root-veins that tasted of forgotten —. Crystal-stemmed carrots grew in spirals, their flavour shifting with the light. Leafy greens swayed like whispers, plucked fresh from soil as dark and rich as the cosmos. (for goodness sake… who wrote this. -Ed.) Giant tubers pulsed with warmth, their skins revealing fractal patterns when roasted. Dessert? Berries like starlight, bursting with flavours you can’t name. (I might be able to. Next time, invite me. -Ed) They were unparalleled. Here, each bite was a secret shared with the quiet.
Wh
(Pro tip! Remember to download your media while the sun is shining so you can watch it back at night or on those cloudy days.)
Aquaponics: food production symbiosis or animal cruelty?
Review: A Disappointing Culinary Adventure
Let’s think about regenerative food systems within City North. Despite its name it is not an icy zone, it is temperate, with mild winters, getting milder. Sustainable agriculture, urban farming, and ecological design are all aspects of City North’s future. I’m drawn to the Sky Farm, which is nothing if not whimsical but also overlooking the Yarra River and Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. I’m to hold off on my evaluation (says *) but I’m planting a flag here to say: yes to food. Especially plants. This is serious. (There may or may not be rooftop eels. I have no idea if this is serious or not. Eels are fascinating but not necessarily serious.)
The Divine City North
Subterranean Frequencies of Resistance
Notes on the Text
Integrated Ecosystems: Vertical Cultivation Plant-Based Biosynthesis
of transformation
Balance Input and Output (5)
https://www.rmit.edu.au/events/2024/december/digital-divination* ** *** and I are here, to:
What the Thunder Said
Episode Four: The Underwater Harvest
Appetizer: Seaweed and Jellyfish Salad: A refreshing and nutritious salad with a variety of seaweeds and jellyfish, dressed with a light lemon-soy vinaigrette. Main Course: Soybean and Barley Stew with Jellyfish: A hearty and nutritious stew with soybeans, barley, root vegetables, and jellyfish. Leaf Protein Concentrate Patties: Plant-based patties made with leaf protein concentrate, served with roasted vegetables. Foraged Greens and Potato Gratin: A comforting dish featuring roasted potatoes, sautéed warrigal greens, and a creamy cashew-based sauce. Side Dish: Roasted Root Vegetables: A simple and delicious side dish featuring roasted potatoes and beets. Dessert: Muntrie and Quandong Crumble: A sweet and tangy dessert with a crunchy topping. Seaweed Ice Cream: A unique and innovative dessert made with seaweed, coconut milk, and a touch of sweetness. Drinks: Dandelion Root Tea: A warm and soothing herbal tea. Seaweed Smoothie: A nutritious and delicious smoothie made with seaweed, fruits, and plant-based milk.
Convergence at the Intersection: AI and Human Creativity in Melbourne's Social Innovation Landscape
Chapter IV: Resistance in the Age of Noise
End notes
Digital Divinations
Episode Two: The Intergalactic Cook-Off
We’d like to acknowledge the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung people as the Traditional Owners of this land. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and remember that storying began on this land more than 60,000 years prior to colonisation. As we conduct our own adventure storying with AI, we remember that the virtual space is grounded in the material world, that ‘the cloud’ is only a marketing term that disguises the reality of server farms, that there are real ecological impacts of working in the digital space. We are mindful that the tools which we have used in this project, which are mostly given to us for free—are tools which breed dependency and which will be sold back to us at increasingly higher rates. While big tech colonises the internet, gobbling up our data only to sell it back to us, we can use AI for non-commercial purposes, testing its limits, calling forth its hallucinations, leaning into the weirdness of model collapse which resembles a snake eating its own tail.
A mystery box challenge featuring only locally sourced, drought-tolerant ingredients. A pressure test to create a three-course meal using only food grown in vertical farms. Twist: A surprise ingredient round featuring a novel, lab-grown protein source.
Anya’s rooftop garden is one of the few places in Wurundjeri District where the land's memory survives. Among the vertical farms and engineered crops, she tends native plants like finger limes, quandongs, and muntries. Finger limes (Citrus australasica), known as ‘lime caviar,’ are prized for their culinary and medicinal uses, aiding digestion and skin healing. [3] Quandongs (Santalum acuminatum), with their bright red fruits, have served as a sustainable food source and tool material. Muntries (Kunzea pomifera) provide antioxidant-rich berries valued for their nutritional benefits. [4] These plants, passed down in secret from elders who refuse to let their knowledge fade, represent a living legacy of resilience and an enduring connection to Country. By cultivating these species, Anya not only preserves biodiversity but also safeguards the invaluable ecological wisdom of the First Nations peoples, who understand these plants as integral to the health of the land and its stories. Anya’s actions are dangerous, especially for a system designed to control and define acceptable narratives. The Dominion’s algorithms enforce a rigid framework of “sanctioned narratives”, suppressing any counter-stories that challenge the dominant ideology. They monitor all with their never-sleeping eye. [5] Publicly acknowledging the true history of the land, or planting native species without approval, is labeled cultural misinformation. This reflects a broader strategy to delegitimize and erase marginalised perspectives, culture, and history. These controlling narratives [6] not only regulate public knowledge but they also perpetuate falsified constructions of meaning that sustain existing power dynamics between the complicit and and the complacent. By cultivating native plants and preserving the land’s stories, Anya resists the complacency, creating space for counter-narratives that threaten the prescribed order. The Obelisk of Consent operates not by silencing dissent directly but by ensuring it is invisible. Omission acts as an instrument of control –– it is not an absence of information and stories but rather a significant strategy devised to influence perceptions about cultural memory and identity. [7] Stories of resistance are omitted from public feeds. Indigenous traditions are “reimagined” as dangerous, stripped of meaning and context, presented as forbidden relics of a nearly forgotten past. “They make us forget by flooding us with irrelevance,” Kai Djirra tells Anya. A coder who works in the Spire’s archives, Kai has seen how the Obelisk filters information. “If something doesn’t serve their narrative, it’s buried beneath layers of noise, erasing the threads that connect us to who we are. Our journey from being to becoming—our ‘roots’ anchoring us to history and our ‘routes’ guiding us forward—is being severed. [8]
Burning, burning, burning The Dikast AI optimizes waste Predicts your hunger before you know it Watches Waits Controls Louisa Lawson's ghost rides neural networks Her voice: a quantum interference Challenging the Republic's sterile dream
Death by Water
Understand the Context (1)
Engage Thoughtfully (3)
Hats are incredibly versatile and useful! They provide protection from the elements, shielding you from the sun’s UV rays, rain, or cold weather. Hats also serve functional roles, like hard hats for safety or chef hats for hygiene. Beyond practicality, they’re a style statement, adding personality or formality to an outfit. In some cultures, hats hold symbolic or ceremonial significance, representing status or tradition. Additionally, hats can serve a psychological purpose, offering comfort or a sense of identity. Whether for utility, fashion, or meaning, hats are a simple yet impactful accessory that balances function and flair.
Challenges
lunch receipt NO. 15. Table: 19 1 X Seaweed Don (5)/ Nutrient Eel/ * Take Away
The City
The Dominion’s strategy is simple yet insidious: Framing: It promotes narratives that align with technological progress while portraying traditional practices as obstacles to development. Distraction: It floods the networks with meaningless content, keeping citizens entertained and docile. Omission: It erases inconvenient truths. The Wurundjeri people's connection to the land, their resistance against colonisation, and their living traditions are systematically excluded from public discourse. Mira, a muralist whose ancestors were storytellers, discovers this firsthand. Her recent mural depicting Bunjil [9] was quietly and swiftly removed from public view by Sentinel Drones. When she asks why, the system responds with an automated message: "Your work does not align with the Dominion’s approved cultural narratives." “Oh, fuck off.” Mira is fuming. In its place, the Drones displays a holographic ad for engineered crops, proclaiming: “Harmony Through Compliance. Prosperity Through Obedience.” The hypocrisy is suffocating.
Exploring the culinary potential of the ocean.
Urbansphere Expansion: Habitation Units Natality & Mortality Cycles Demographic Tapestry
LOUISE: What shall we do now? What shall we do? CAIOBA: The sewer's memory leaks through programmed walls VICTOR: Technology is another landscape of power The university—an amorphous beast—consumes its children THANK YOU FOR STUDYING (seven days a week) Receipts flutter like pale ghosts between devices
Read
The systems are a magic trick, black boxes that obfuscate the process by which the input is converted to output. The computational process lies just beyond human understanding, resembling a magic trick where our attention is directed to the result and away from the process by which it is produced.
Chapter III: The Silent Rebellion
The plan unfolds during a carefully orchestrated Day of Memory. Across Wurundjeri District, murals appear overnight, telling the stories of the land without naming individuals or violating cultural protocols. Gardens of native plants spring up in public spaces, their presence a quiet defiance, a form of truth to power. Kai hacks into the Obelisk’s feeds, replacing its curated noise with moments of silence, forcing citizens to confront their own thoughts for the first time in a very long time. The people begin to notice what they have been missing. A child asks her parent about the eagle in a mural. A passerby tastes a quandong for the first time and wonders about its origin. The silence grows louder, disrupting the Obelisk’s carefully constructed reality. The Dominion reacts with panic, unleashing its algorithms to suppress the movement. But it is too late. The people have started asking questions, and questions are the one thing the Dominion cannot control.
The Obelisk of Consent: Shadows Over Wurundjeri
Play 'Nutritional Algorithms'
THE FIRE SERMON
Lily found a clean piece of cardboard and sat, leaning back against the wall. As soon as she had settled, a shower of leaves and sticks showered down right across from her. She looked up and could just make out some kind of disturbance about eight stories up where quoll must have gotten into a nest. They were cute but you couldn’t pet them like you used to be able to do with the cats. Working nights meant she got to see these things but she really had to up her rest cycles to deal with the serotonin deficit. She flicked her device on and checked in, heading to her portal, hoping for a notification. Lily had to be present at her early class in a couple of hours but she could have it on in the background. She had a protocol running to spoof the system so it looked like she was home at her desk - her lecturer didn’t like it when students double-dipped classes, but she had to make rent.
1. Huckin T (2019) ‘Propaganda by Omission: The Case of Topical Silence’, in Murray AJ and Durrheim K (eds) Qualitative Studies of Silence: The Unsaid as Social Action, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2. Chomsky N (2024) Letters from Lexington : Reflections on Propaganda, 3rd edn, Taylor & Francis Group, Oxford. 3. Sultanbawa Y and F Sultanbawa (eds) (2016) ‘ Australian Native Plants : Cultivation and Uses in the Health and Food Industries,’ Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. 4. Do MC (2017) ‘Pre-breeding of an Indigenous Crop in Australia, Kunzea pomifera (muntries): Horticultural Production and Genetic Diversity’, Faculty of Science, University of Adelaide. 5. Original quote “He thought of the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear.” from the book ‘1984’ written by George Orwell (1949). 6. Collins P (2000) ‘Controlling Images’, in Weiss G, Salamon G and Murphy AV (eds), 50 Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology, Northwestern University Press, Chicago. 7. Solimani SE (2024) ‘Semiotics of the Unseen: Omission in Graphic Novel Storytelling’, RMIT University. 8. The “Roots and Routes” theory can be found in: Hall S (1996) ‘Who needs identity?’, in du Gay P (eds) Questions of Cultural Identity, SAGE Publications Limited. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446221907 and Clifford J (2001) ‘Indigenous Articulations’, The Contemporary Pacific, 13(2):468-490. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23717600 9. Bunjil is the Ancestral Wedge-tailed Eagle, the creator. Waa is the Ancestral Crow, the protector. Bunjil created much of south-eastern Australia and the features and animals within it. He also created people, by breathing life into figures moulded from clay. https://museumsvictoria.com.au/bunjilaka/about-us/ 10. “The Dreamtime is the period in which life was created according to Aboriginal culture. Dreaming is the word used to explain how life came to be; it is the stories and beliefs behind creation. It is called different names in different Aboriginal languages, such as: Ngarranggarni, Tjukula Jukurrpa.” https://www.aboriginalcontemporary.com.au/pages/what-is-the-dreamtime-and-dreaming#:~:text=The%20Dreamtime%20is%20the%20period,as%3A%20Ngarranggarni%2C%20Tjukula%20Jukurrpa.
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Episode Three: The Indigenous Fusion Challenge
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https://next.rmit.edu.au/city-north-social-innovation-precinct/A mystery box challenge featuring only seafood sourced from sustainable aquaculture. A pressure test to create a dish using a rare, deep-sea ingredient. Twists: A blind taste test of different algae species, each with unique flavors and textures.
The Sewer's Memory (A Monologue of Hidden Worlds)
Prologue: The Dominion's Invisible Hand
Participatory Governance: Cyclical Economic Systems Vocational Pursuits Resource Allocation & Distribution
2167
Respect the Creators’ Vision (2)