New York 2044 is a speculative newspaper that explores the visions, fears, and strategies shaping the city’s future. Rather than imagining a distant future that is generations away, a 20-year timeframe foregrounds the responsibility of co-building the future alongside those already shaping it today —with concepts and institutions that likely already exist in the present. The project asks: what are paths to a better city that don’t rely on simply willing away the economic and social contradictions central to the city’s identity?
The newspaper is built on interviews with caseworkers, architects, refugee advocates, and many others, who provide a deep layer of research into the urban process. Participants are invited to build out from their experience to 2044—a unique engagement for many participants, who are often caught up in the ongoing crisis of the present. The in-the-weeds futurism produced from this exchange becomes fictional articles—a counterpoint to both dematerialized tech-adjacent futurism, and utopian/dystopian narratives.
A key artistic and design objective is to explore print media as a civic tool in an era of fragmented, an increasingly insecure, digital discourse. Each issue is printed on a web-offset press, reaffirming the role of physical newspapers in fostering shared civic imagination.
In the coming year, the project seeks to expand to new themes, communities, and partnerships. The goal is to spark informed optimism, resisting the prevailing culture of futurelessness.