Digital kangaroo, rabbit and dolphin released on to the streets of Bristol
The Urbanimals - winners of this year's Playable City Award - will be projected into various overlooked Bristol locations in an effort to engage residents with environments which often get ignored
Visions of the future city from the 1920s and 30s brought us ambitious foresight of flying cars, weather-regulating domes and post-apocalyptic dystopias void of any of human activity. Even today, forward-thinking ideas seem to plan for urban efficiency by removing citizens from city streets, or by reducing everyday interaction to a world of self-checkouts, driverless cars and touch-screen communication. But as we drift towards a life with our head in the cloud, Bristol's Playable City Award is trying to bring us back down to earth.
"We are not just users of the city. We are also its creators," says Anna Grajper and Sebastian Dobiesz of WrocAaw-based LAX (Laboratory for Architectural Experiments). Selected from 197 applicants as winners of the 30,000 award, LAX are a key part of the movement to make cities around the world more exciting, engaging and liveable. And for LAX, this starts with a rabbit, a kangaroo, a beetle and a dolphin.