A city’s imprint is directly determined by the mobility of its citizens and visitors, how why and where they travel.

The city of Greater Melbourne’s public transport infrastructure comprises trains, trams and buses. A massive renovation of this infrastructure is underway, and the metropolitan train system is the focus of these changes. Trains are the veins in the body of the city, arteries that pump its lifeblood and fuel its energy.

XV takes Melbourne’s fifteen veins and transforms them into a culture-building space through film production and app development.

A diverse team of artists and filmmakers will be commissioned to make a film about the unique culture of their train line. This new city map will acknowledge the lands each line passes through thereby inscribing First Nations knowledge into the project’s DNA.

The films will provide inspiration and guidance for commuters to tell their story in an interactive, moving-image format. The user-interface through web-and-app flow will empower any registered train traveller to build their own narrative of on any of the 15 lines and submit it in real-time to the project’s live website.

A key project ambition is to reconfigure modes of participation, citizenship, culture and democracy through the creation of a mass theatricality.

XV was shortlisted for the Creative State Commissions.