Citizen Manifesto for HARAJUKU.
What would you like to see in Harajuku to make it a more creative and enriching place? AI summarizes your ideas and turns them into posters.
CCBT is partnering with Ars Electronica, a cultural organization based in the Austrian city of Linz.
Based on the idea of participatory art, Citizen Manifesto turns your ideas generated through dialogue into posters to serve as manifestos for transforming the city. In conjunction with the 2025 CCBT theme of the Future Commons and the Ars Electronica project Citizen Manifesto, posters are displayed at the entrance to WITH HARAJUKU, a shopping complex located halfway between Harajuku Station and CCBT, on the weekend that CCBT opens in the neighborhood. Become an active participant in the city and envision the future of Harajuku together with others.
■Overview
Citizen Manifesto invites locals and visitors in Harajuku to share ideas for public spaces, shared resources, and community systems that can make the city more creative and enriching in the future. Originally developed by Ars Electronica Futurelab and Hakuhodo Inc., the installation explores new ways to spread citizens’ demands, sparking dialogue between people with diverse opinions, unfamiliar wishes, and bold visions for the future. Contributions are transformed into posters that come together as the collective manifesto.
Inatallation View of Citizen Manifesto at Ars Electronica Festival 2025: Panic (2025.9) (Photo: Bettina Gangl)
In the installation, participants interact with Artificial Intelligence, which acts as a creative collaborator in the process. Discussions are recorded via microphone and transcribed using OpenAI Whisper. The resulting transcripts are summarized into key statements with OpenAI o4-mini, and participants then selected from a range of headlines, subtitles, and poster designs to shape their message. The posters, generated with OpenAI gpt-image, became part of the printed Citizen Manifesto as well as a digital version shareable via QR code – extending the dialogue beyond the exhibition space.
The installation focuses on common ground rather than differences and encourages participants to co-create future visions together. It shows how generative AI can support open expression and civic dialogue while making the creative process transparent – from conversation to poster.
■Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is a cultural institution for art and advanced technology based in Linz, Austria. For more than 40 years, Ars Electronica has hosted the world’s largest annual media arts festival, the Ars Electronica Festival. They have also established “Futurelab,” a center for research on the future of art and technology in collaboration with businesses, government, cultural, educational, and research institutions. It also includes the Ars Electronica Center, known as the “museum and school of the future,” and the Prix Ars Electronica, which is the world’s longest running international media arts competition.
Official website: https://ars.electronica.art/news/en/
■Ars Electronica Futurelab
Ars Electronica Futurelab is an artistic R&D laboratory and atelier. We create tangible future prototypes and experiences: interactive installations, immersive artworks, technical solution approaches, workshops, experiments, and more. Together with worldwide partners, we aim to humanize technologies and inspire the public.
Official website: https://ars.electronica.art/futurelab/en/
■Credits
Ars Electronica Futurelab: Denise Hirtenfelder, Nicolas Naveau, Otto Naderer, Peter Holzkorn, Hideaki Ogawa,
Hakuhodo Inc.
Access
LIFORK HARAJUKU 1F Entrance (WITH HARAJUKU, 1-14-30 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo)
1 minutes’ walk from Harajuku Station (JR Yamanote Line)
1 minutes’ walk from Meiji-jingumae ＜Harajuku＞ Station (Tokyo Metro Chiyoda and Fukutoshin lines)
