We Made Ourselves Over
The future
is here
A new resilience
has taken hold
Download the app
to speak to the future
Watch all 5 films
online
It’s 2097 and the days of upheaval are over. A new resilience has taken hold.
Three young girls must make a decision which will affect their entire city, as well as members of their own families. The future of the city relies on their ability to embrace the unknown, face the future and act.
2097: We Made Ourselves Over takes you on a journey to the cusp of the next century. Come into a world where consciousness is transferred from the dead to the living. See molecular harvesters destroy cities and rebuild them.
In five short science fiction films – each accompanied by an interactive film for smartphones – and through live events across both Hull and Aarhus, 2097: We Made Ourselves Over explores the belief that everyone has the power to act and influence the future – uncovering the unnerving and exhilarating idea that anything is possible.
Step into the future here…
Speak to the future rulers of the city on your smartphone.
Set 80 years into the future, the app puts you at the centre of the story of three young girls who make a decision to embrace the unknown. Download the 2097 app to play the companion interactive episode released alongside each film and record your hopes for 2097.
On October 1st 2017, the phone boxes of Hull rang together.
Queues formed outside the city’s unique cream phone boxes as hundreds of people gathered to wait for the call. The future was arriving and it came to every neighbourhood across the city. At the end of the line Hessa – one of the three rulers of the future city – asked for your help. From the hundreds of people who answered and the thousands who rang in over the course of the month, hundreds of recording have been made; gathering ideas for the future of the city.
Each Saturday and Sunday in October, neighbourhoods across the city – from Hessle to Hedon – hosted pop-up film screenings for the project’s five sci-fi films.
And as the phone boxes rang, electric cars began a journey around the city, picking up hundreds of passengers from phone boxes over the five weekends of October. Each journey brought passengers face-to-face with a character from 2097; inviting them to reflect on the changes they want to take place in the decades to come.
Post your photos and comments using #its2097
Start times every 15 minutes from 18.30 each day.
Immerse yourself in a world at the turn of the next century.
2097: We Made Ourselves Over, Live in Aarhus blends audio, installation and interactive experiences, allowing you to explore your vision of the city and your role in shaping its future.
Book your place on a unique 90 minute journey into the future. As scenes, sounds and fragments from the past shift and dissolve in front of your eyes, you’re invited to reimagine your city and witness a world 80 years from now.
Click below for more details, our FAQ and to book tickets.
We interviewed with people from Aarhus, Hull and beyond – from school children and fortune tellers, to experts on sea-level rise, smart cities and community activism.
The future literally knocks on the door in 2097: We Made Ourselves Over. It insists on being let in and examined in all its aspects and implications. – Kunsten-nu Our biggest and most ambitious work to date, 2097: We Made Ourselves Over was inspired by the citizens of two cities and sought to build on…
This time last year, a group of twenty people from around Hull came together to talk about the future of the city. All over 60 – the eldest born in 1934 – we looked back at the changes over the past 80 years. Central to the discussions was how communities around the city had transformed.…
You can imagine that asking a room full of 10 year old children what 2097 has in store would throw up some interesting responses. Among the flying cars and hover boards, a surprising number held fairly bleak visions of the future; of being dominated by machines or – one of the three favourite ideas chosen…
Aarhus and Hull are both home to some of the largest machines you might get to see. Across the water from the city centre in each you’ll find the cranes and lifters of their respective ports – moving containers cars and bulk material by the tonne. While the new Siemens factory in Hull has begun…
A guest post from Karolina Thakker – our consultant on the future of food for the 2097 films. “A man opens his lunchbox. Thanks to its healthy appearance one can tell that he belongs to the upper middle classes. Today he carries a simple salad with dressing, a portable food smoker with thin slices…
Margaret tells me that she will be away this summer – making her annual trip to a remote Pacific island – out of touch from phones and email. Now over 80 years old and a Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the Department of Informatics at The University of Sussex, Margaret Boden isn’t how you’d picture an…
University Professor Dr. Chris Skinner forecasts the floods of tomorrow. His work at the University of Hull looks at the conditions which cause flash floods, and since 2014, he’s run SeriousGeoGames – a project which uses virtual reality and gamification to let people understand flooding and the complex decisions which go into protecting against them.…
Donald Trump’s rejection of the Paris Agreement this month could be the most harmful decision to the future of our planet, ever. His intention to resurrect the United State’s old industries of mining and coal has brought widespread condemnation from business leaders and oil giants alike. Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said that the withdrawal…
“The streets are twenty feet broad; there lie gardens behind all their houses… Their doors have all two leaves, which, as they are easily opened, so they shut of their own accord; and, there being no property among them, every man may freely enter into any house whatsoever.” Thomas More, Utopia, first published in 1516…
What does 2097 look like? Take a look at some of the images scriptwriter Matt has been drawing inspiration from to create the world of the five sci-fi films. Can you imagine these buildings, objects and people being part of your city in 80 years time? Objects Thinking about what ceremonial objects may look like 80…
Want to star in a series of sci-fi shorts? Are you an actor and up for a new challenge? The search is on for two older Danish actors as a casting call launches for major roles in a series of short sci-fi films being shot in the city. The sci-fi films are part of the…
We’re sitting around the table and someone asks: ‘Do Facebook friends really count as friends?’ For everyone at the table – a group of over 60’s from around Hull – the consensus is that communities depend on something inherent in meeting people in person: on finding ways for people to participate, to contribute and to trust one another.…
Our taxi-driver, Mr Chang, pointed out the car window: “That city will be finished in about five years time” Amid vast stretches of reclaimed land rows of cranes punctuate a sea of giant new apartment buildings. This is Songdo – a new ‘smart’ city being built from the ground up in South Korea. Now that more than half…