Skopje, North Maceodnia
Exploring the synergy between artificial intelligence, the internet, and urban metamorphosis, this project intricately unravels the transformation of a city. It examines the complex dynamics at play within urbanism, architecture, and nationalist revitalization, revealing the role of social media and AI in deciphering how the internet perceives the controversial Skopje 2014 project.
This film aims to unravel the complex dynamics surrounding Skopje's controversial Skopje 2014 project through an immersive multimedia experience. Blending urban research, personal narratives, and inventive digital storytelling techniques, the film explores how this government-led urban renewal initiative promoted a homogenised Macedonian-Slavic-Orthodox identity by radically transforming the cityscape. It investigates Skopje as a palimpsest, a mixed-ethnic city where layers of contested history, culture, and belonging have been repeatedly inscribed and erased. Moving beyond the architectural transformations, the film illuminates the broader existential struggle faced by cities striving to build a unified identity against the centrifugal forces of globalisation and competing local allegiances. Skopje's erasure of its Yugoslav past also surfaces questions of constructed heritage and invented tradition in the process of nation building. Through this, it aims to explore how the internet remembers Skopje, but most importantly, how AI understands it.
"This film extensively utilises AI systems like ChatGPT to conduct research and craft the narrative structure. ChatGPT serves as a creative interlocutor, helping formulate critical questions about Skopje 2014's impacts that shape the film's direction. Generative image tools like Midjourney are used to visualise different conceptualisations of the city. The AI generates photorealistic impressions of Skopje based on textual prompts, encapsulating imagined realities. These AI-created scenes add speculative layers to the documentary's exploration of the city's complex identity. By blending AI-assisted research, generative media, data visualisation, and cinematic storytelling, the film provides multidimensional perspectives on Skopje 2014. The AI elements enhance the narrative while retaining a humanistic approach to the subject matter.
Through extensive on-the-ground research and innovative digital storytelling techniques, this project illuminated the complex dynamics surrounding Skopje 2014. The film's immersive visualisations and AI-powered narrative revealed how the government-dictated remaking of Skopje promoted a narrow Macedonian-Slavic heritage while erasing the city's multiethnic fabric and Yugoslav past. The film's use of social media discourse also unearthed more mainstream narratives. Ultimately, the project provided a polyvocal, multilayered record of this controversial urban planning initiative through an immersive experience.
The creative use of emerging technologies fundamentally expanded the possibilities of the documentary form. Tools like geospatial analysis, AI, and interactive storytelling enabled a more participatory, nonlinear mode of nonfiction filmmaking. The ability to incorporate speculative and counterfactual dimensions opened up new avenues for exploring the past and future ramifications of Skopje 2014. However, crafting a cohesive narrative from these multifaceted streams of data remained an ongoing challenge. The film required finding the right balance between technological innovation and human storytelling. Still, it demonstrated how computational documentary can reveal new dimensions of complex urban issues and create more affecting, insightful experiences for audiences."