A pop-up global moving image and projection art festival
PROJECT / FORWARD
Where Artists Get To Plan The Future
Project / Forward is a radical reimagining of how we experience digital art in public spaces. As a free, globally-distributed moving image initiative by Micro Galleries, it transforms everyday surfaces – from ancient temple walls to modern sidewalks – into ephemeral canvases for future visions. In this moment of profound global transition, where we stand at the threshold between crisis and possibility, Project / Forward serves as a portal into imagined futures through digital and new media art.
Each installation presents a carefully curated 30-60 minute journey through multiple artistic visions that plan what the future could look like if they were allowed to design a part of it, featuring works that range from intimate 10-second glimpses to expansive 3-minute explorations. These selections showcase diverse global perspectives on our potential futures, appearing unexpectedly in under-served communities and spaces where digital art rarely ventures. Whether you're an intentional viewer or a serendipitous witness, these projections crack open the boundaries between present and future, between art and public space, between the digital and the physical.
This project was originally seeded and evolved by Kat Roma Greer, Brian Luque Marcos and Rhiannon Hopley.
Each installation presents a carefully curated 30-60 minute journey through multiple artistic visions that plan what the future could look like if they were allowed to design a part of it, featuring works that range from intimate 10-second glimpses to expansive 3-minute explorations. These selections showcase diverse global perspectives on our potential futures, appearing unexpectedly in under-served communities and spaces where digital art rarely ventures. Whether you're an intentional viewer or a serendipitous witness, these projections crack open the boundaries between present and future, between art and public space, between the digital and the physical.
This project was originally seeded and evolved by Kat Roma Greer, Brian Luque Marcos and Rhiannon Hopley.
3 global events
117 artists
22 Countries
500K eyeballs
What If Artists' Planned the Future
Beaming works across the world
Where Artists Plan The Future
How Can I Be Involved?
This is a free public art movement for everyone.
- Artists and Creatives Working In Moving ImageIf you have a moving image work that's 30 seconds - 3 mins long, envisions solutions-focused futures or imagineers blueprints on how a hopeful future could look, click below!
- I Have a Projector and A Surface // Public ScreeningIf you have a projector (any size) and a small speaker, or know how to get one, and you would love to screen this project in your community, sign up, receive a full info pack and team support to make this event happen in your neighbourhood. Free and accessible!
- I Have an Organisation or Festival and Would Like to Do A Screening For My CommunityIf this project aligns with your organisation or festivals vision, sign up and we will send you a full info pack and team support to make this happen at your event.
- I Want To Screen at My Home // Private ScreeningIf you have a projector or large screen at home, and would like to invite your neighbours and friends to experience this project, sign up, receive a full info pack and team support to make this event happen in your loungeroom! Free and accessible!
- I Have No Time But I Have $$We would love to sponsor more artists and groups from under-resourced communities to be involved and host screenings. If you have money you would like to contribute and make this happen, let us know.
The Theme of the Works
Artists are now in charge.
You've been called up into an exclusive think-tank of creative thinkers and charged with designing the world as it will be in the future.
Everyone knows artists can imagine better ideas, futures, solutions and possibilities where most can't envision them. Your job is to make these amazing possibilities and visions come to life.
How will people live? What will their values be? What will the environment look like? What do people do? What will be important? What would have worked?
You are writing the plan and creating the script, the images and the narrative for the future. Building on the past, on the data we have, on those who went before us to be brave enough to envision a different, better world – what will you create? This is not a moment to predict doom and post-apocalyptic ideas. It is a chance to build a better tomorrow, forging possibilities and alternatives, where no one believes there are any.
You've been called up into an exclusive think-tank of creative thinkers and charged with designing the world as it will be in the future.
Everyone knows artists can imagine better ideas, futures, solutions and possibilities where most can't envision them. Your job is to make these amazing possibilities and visions come to life.
How will people live? What will their values be? What will the environment look like? What do people do? What will be important? What would have worked?
You are writing the plan and creating the script, the images and the narrative for the future. Building on the past, on the data we have, on those who went before us to be brave enough to envision a different, better world – what will you create? This is not a moment to predict doom and post-apocalyptic ideas. It is a chance to build a better tomorrow, forging possibilities and alternatives, where no one believes there are any.
How it works
Artist Callout
Via a hybrid of intentional curatorial invitation and open callout, we invite moving image artists to submit 10 second - 3 minute video works responding to the theme.
Selection
We curate a diverse collection of moving image artworks that reflect the theme, response to public space,diversity of perspective and creative practice.
Callout for Screeners
We have a key featured site and callout for people around the world who would like to feature Project / Forward on the festival weekend.
Select the Sites
Our screeners find interesting, unique, underutilised and accessible public space to feature the work. It could be a temple, a bin, a warehouse, a balcony.
Community Events
Screeners are encouraged to build a localised version of events in their public space to coincide with the festival, inviting community members to engage with the art, participate in discussions, connect with one another, and see how they can activate ideas from the package
Shout About It
All registered public spaces for the festival are promoted and mapped, accessible to the public.
Make it Accessible
Over the Global Festival Weekend, a schedule of screenings is mapped and circulated locally and to the broader community. We also have live online viewings for people who would like to register to view at home.
Killer Package
Our stellar tech and creative team collate a stunning 30 - 60 min visual package that is sent around the world.
Project / Forward Weekend
On the same weekend all around the world, our hosts screen our Project / Forward video package for free for communities
Documentation and Promotion
There is a free, downloadable online catalogue available to everyone to access the works. MG creates a wrap reel to amplify the work and locations throughout the social-verse.
But Why?
Look, let's be real for a hot second: our digital world is moving at warp speed, but who's actually getting to enjoy the ride? While tech billionaires are dropping millions on NFTs, countless communities are still waiting for an invitation to the digital art party. With creative tech spending rocketing toward $3 trillion (yes, TRILLION), there's a glaring disconnect between who creates our digital future and who actually gets to see it.
That's where Project / Forward crashes the scene – beautifully disrupting this digital divide by transforming ordinary public spaces into extraordinary galleries of possibility. We're not talking about stuffy museum halls with whispered conversations and $20 entry fees. We're talking about artists projecting vibrant visions of sustainable futures directly onto the concrete walls of your community.
When artists transform a forgotten building facade into a canvas showing water-filtering urban forests or community-powered energy systems, something magical happens. Suddenly, that blank wall isn't just a wall – it's a portal to a possible tomorrow where your community has agency in shaping its own destiny.
Each projection creates a temporary wonderland where folks from all walks of life can gather, gawk, debate, and dream together. Artists from diverse backgrounds offer their visual blueprints for more hopeful futures – from solarpunk urban designs to indigenous-led environmental restoration – proving innovation doesn't only happen in Silicon Valley boardrooms or Chelsea galleries.
Without initiatives like this, let's face it: the future gets designed by the same privileged few who already control most of our resources. Project / Forward flips that script by ensuring that visionary artistic blueprints for more sustainable, equitable worlds reach communities who deserve to see themselves in tomorrow's narrative.
In this weird, wild space between our messy present and uncertain future, these projections light up the night with radical possibility. It's not just art – it's an invitation for everyone to join the conversation about where we're headed next.
Because the future shouldn't be a luxury product – it should be a public experience.
That's where Project / Forward crashes the scene – beautifully disrupting this digital divide by transforming ordinary public spaces into extraordinary galleries of possibility. We're not talking about stuffy museum halls with whispered conversations and $20 entry fees. We're talking about artists projecting vibrant visions of sustainable futures directly onto the concrete walls of your community.
When artists transform a forgotten building facade into a canvas showing water-filtering urban forests or community-powered energy systems, something magical happens. Suddenly, that blank wall isn't just a wall – it's a portal to a possible tomorrow where your community has agency in shaping its own destiny.
Each projection creates a temporary wonderland where folks from all walks of life can gather, gawk, debate, and dream together. Artists from diverse backgrounds offer their visual blueprints for more hopeful futures – from solarpunk urban designs to indigenous-led environmental restoration – proving innovation doesn't only happen in Silicon Valley boardrooms or Chelsea galleries.
Without initiatives like this, let's face it: the future gets designed by the same privileged few who already control most of our resources. Project / Forward flips that script by ensuring that visionary artistic blueprints for more sustainable, equitable worlds reach communities who deserve to see themselves in tomorrow's narrative.
In this weird, wild space between our messy present and uncertain future, these projections light up the night with radical possibility. It's not just art – it's an invitation for everyone to join the conversation about where we're headed next.
Because the future shouldn't be a luxury product – it should be a public experience.
Our special sauce is that we are THE ONLY ONE! We are the only global, roaming, free, accessible projection art festival in the world. AND, we are future-focused artistic planning.
Creative Leadership Team
-
Kat Roma GreerArtistic Director, Micro Galleries
Creative Producer, Project / Forward
Kat is a curator of public art interventions and community engagements; guerrilla creative business consultant for women.
Australia, working in Hong Kong and Chiang Mai. -
Brian Luque-MarcosArtistic Director, Project / ForwardBrian, based in Graz, is a spatial designer with special interest in modern production techniques. His works tend to use techniques such as 3D Printing, Laser Cutting and CNC drilling to create materialised pieces that can be described as art, but also functional parts and useful objects for serial production.
Spain, working in Vienna.
-
Tri Haryoko AdiCreative Producer, Project / Forward
Tri, known by his artistic alias Uncle Joy, began his career as a street artist, creating vibrant graffiti and urban art. He later transitioned into drawing, doodling, painting abstract art, mural and creating paper-mâché sculptures. While his early work centred on street art, his evolving style now encompasses a range of techniques and mediums, reflecting his diverse creative interests and explorations.
Indonesia -
Miguel JeronimoCreative Producer, Project / ForwardMiguel is a freelance photographer, curator, writer and artist based in Phnom Penh, with more than 70 exhibitions in Cambodia — including solo and group shows on topics such as environment, social inequality, gender, disability and human rights. With a background in robotics and emotions in artificial intelligence, he’s passionate about photography and working with NGOs on projects with impact.
Portugal, working in Cambodia.
Locations
We've had three iterations of the program in 22 locations.
Project / Forward: 2047
11-13 December, 2020
The flagship event included 45 artworks screened across eleven featured locations:
Amman, Jordan; Sydney, Australia; Central Java, Indonesia; Patan, Nepal; Padua, Italy; Graz, Austria; Bogota, Colombia; Texas, USA; Nairoibu, Kenya; Chachapayos, Peru; Barcelona, Spain.
This project was supported by The Ministry of Culture, Peru, and Jason Stephenson.
11-13 December, 2020
The flagship event included 45 artworks screened across eleven featured locations:
Amman, Jordan; Sydney, Australia; Central Java, Indonesia; Patan, Nepal; Padua, Italy; Graz, Austria; Bogota, Colombia; Texas, USA; Nairoibu, Kenya; Chachapayos, Peru; Barcelona, Spain.
This project was supported by The Ministry of Culture, Peru, and Jason Stephenson.
Wrap Reel
Project / Forward: 2047 - Inner West Fest
11-13 December, 2022
This project had a second iteration in 2022 as part of the Inner West Fest in Sydney, supported by the Inner West Council which also included four new local, commissioned works.
11-13 December, 2022
This project had a second iteration in 2022 as part of the Inner West Fest in Sydney, supported by the Inner West Council which also included four new local, commissioned works.
Wrap Reel
Callout
Project / Forward: 2048
17-18 December, 2021
The event included 40 artworks from 25 countries screened across ten featured locations: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Colombia, Italy, Finland, Australia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Cambodia.
17-18 December, 2021
The event included 40 artworks from 25 countries screened across ten featured locations: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Colombia, Italy, Finland, Australia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Cambodia.
Project / Forward: 2049
17 February, 2024 + 30-31 May, 2025
Launched on 17 February, 2024 in Chiang Mai across seven locations as part of The Good Lab initiative, and then with a Global Screening Festival in May, 2025, this iteration features 32 Screening partners around the world + 34 incredible artists + one hour of artworks = Project / Forward: 2049
17 February, 2024 + 30-31 May, 2025
Launched on 17 February, 2024 in Chiang Mai across seven locations as part of The Good Lab initiative, and then with a Global Screening Festival in May, 2025, this iteration features 32 Screening partners around the world + 34 incredible artists + one hour of artworks = Project / Forward: 2049
The Good Lab