City North Fest! The Shared Futures Series: Cardigan Street Takeover

Take a speculative dip into our shared futures on Cardigan street. On Saturday 5 October RMIT University, Melbourne International Games Week and Melbourne Fringe Festival will intersect, to create a spectacular collision of creativity, imagination, and possibilities.

As part of this exciting crossover, RMIT will launch its City North Fest activation program transforming Cardigan Street into a hub of future-focused activities to explore futures that are diverse, sustainable, equitable and inspiring.
 

What does Melbourne's future look like to you?

Find out about the latest speculative fiction at our pop-up library with on-the-spot loans, explore entrepreneurial ideas that might change the way we live tomorrow, or try zero waste food - the food of the Future!

You can also experience immersive digital landscapes of the past with RMIT's Centre of Digital Engagement, watch short speculative films and join an experiment in shared world building through live action role-play. Set in 2050 as Naarm Melbourne becomes a megacity during a global climate emergency, the Future Play Lab's interactive game explores competing visions for the future as resources are scarcer than ever.

The day is also a chance to celebrate change with performances by Fringe Artists. Head First Acrobats merge the future with the past in GodZ, an acrobatic performance exploring the timeless mythology of Ancient Greece. Catherine Magill's VOW(d) explores the expectations and realities of age through visible older women (dancing) while The Hopefuls, a comical pair of puppets, wander through the urban environment to examine the quirks of our community.
 

Arcade launch

City North Fest will culminate in a speculative fiction finale with the Arcade Publications Launch of Composite City from 4-6pm in RMIT Building 78 (corner of Cardigan and Early St). At this launch hear newly unearthed site-specific stories of Melbourne from the grid to the drift, oysters to air, via subterranean sewers and bohemian hangouts. New technologies and traditional publishing practices come together to storify the city. Hear speculative insights on topics ranging from food to fine art as six authors in search of a city mine Melbourne's Hidden histories.

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Upcoming events

Overlooking a city with the ocean in the background

PREMSTEM Conference: Research into neonatal brain repair

Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 13 May 2025 - 15 May 2025
Icon / Small / Location Created with Sketch. Barcelona

Discover PREMSTEM's research into stem cells from umbilical cord tissue as a therapy for preterm brain injury and share your own research.

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Small steps, big change: designing superblocks and resilience in Barcelona and Melbourne

Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 15 May 2025
Icon / Small / Location Created with Sketch. Melbourne City

In this special event for Melbourne Design Week, Salvador Rueda Palenzuela – international urban ecologist, placemaking expert and one of the pioneers of the Barcelona Superblocks – will join RMIT Professor Marco Amati in conversation.

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Trebor Scholz – From Vibe to Viability: A Methodology for Building Transformative Alternatives in the Digital Economy

Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 16 May 2025
Icon / Small / Location Created with Sketch. Melbourne City

At a special event hear New York author, scholar, activist and digital economies expert Professor Trebor Scholz explain how global communities across 60 countries are building alternatives to unaccountable algorithms and covert technology.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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