New York 2044 (Issue #4)

Protest speaker at an event with a large screen behind.

For New York 2044  Issue 4, the education issue, we partnered with the The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center to produce a live performance—a futuristic newscast.

The new issue is available at the NY2044 newsbox at Parsons Street Seats, 13th Street and 5th Avenue, and at the Whitebox Portable newsrack in the subway at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue inside the station. And at the soon to be released digital platform for the project: ny2044.com

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 time frame 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.

For Issue 4, the New York 2044 team interviewed 17 correspondents — teachers, university provosts, students, union educators, educators working with immigrant communities and incarcerated youth, mutual aid organizers, and researchers. The issue addresses educational institutions from the outside — through mutual aid groups and community organizers — and from the inside, via NYC’s unique higher education network: CUNY, Columbia, The New School, NYU, and New York City Public Schools.

The result is a set of vivid, illustrated scenarios from 2044 that build a nuanced possible future through the eyes of those shaping it today.

www.ny2044.com

New York 2044 (Issue #3)

Noah Fischer New York 2044

New York 2044 is a speculative social sculpture in the form of an online and print newspaper conceived of by the artist, writer, and organizer Noah Fischer. Commissioned by More Art, Fischer’s research-based artwork takes the form of a newspaper that proposes the city we want to inhabit in 2044, and how to get there, with articles reported from the imagination of the city’s inhabitants.

From Urban Omnibus:

“It’s the year 2044, and New Yorkers are commemorating the tenth anniversary of the MAGA regime’s fall from national power. It is a solemn day, but after a dark period of deportations, arrests, killings, and the deadliest flood in US history, the city is healing. Noah Fischer reports this scene from the future in the third and final issue of his speculative newspaper project, New York 2044, commissioned by More Art. We spoke to Fischer about the project and his worldbuilding methodology, interviewing deeply engaged New Yorkers (activists, architects, elected officials, engineers, policymakers, and many more …) and inviting them to imagine what the city might be like in twenty years’ time. Fischer then drafted newspaper articles reporting on what could happen in the realms of housing, immigration, and now energy, environment, climate, and public health, based on their speculation. In the “power issue,” we learn that New York City now runs on offshore wind, solar, and thermal energy, with democratically controlled utilities; that big box stores and commercial warehouses are now compelled to pay for the runoff the produce, funding green infrastructure across the city; and that Governors Island is a self-sufficient, autarkic lab for degrowth.”

Read more:

Urban Omnibus: https://urbanomnibus.net/2025/03/the-power-issue/

More Art: https://moreart.org/projects/new-york-2044/

ISSUE2

ISSUE1

 

New York 2044 (issue #1)

Noah Fischer - Highly colorful and chaotic collage resembling a news headline with bold text and illustrations.

New York 2044 is a speculative social sculpture in the form of an online and print newspaper conceived of by the artist, writer, and organizer Noah Fischer. Commissioned by More Art, Fischer’s research-based artwork will take the form of a newspaper that proposes the city we want to inhabit in 2044, and how to get there.

Housing Edition
Reports from: Alicia Boyd, Miguel Robles Duran, Marquis Jenkins, Monxo Lopez, Ramona Ferreyra, Alex Strada, Emily Gallagher, Betty Yu, Felice Kirby, Samuel Stein & two anonymous sources

Interactive newspaper from the future here.

List of Graphic stories here.

Issues report on how the gap between rich and poor is radically narrowing, green housing is plentiful and affordable, and life is healthier and more equitable in New York City, 20 years in the future, without avoiding the familiar challenges and paradoxes. Each headline is shaped by interviews with someone deeply committed to that particular aspect of city life in the present, and a snippet of their personal journey is told in graphic novel format by clicking their author picture on the article. Three playful, aspirational, retro-futuristic, visually stunning printed and online issues will be produced over 2024, joining in concert with More Art’s other public programs, events, and projects for the year.

Issue 1 focuses on housing (a.k.a. “The Rent Is Too Damn Affordable!”), issue #2 will focus on immigration (“Welcoming All to the City of the World”) and issue 3 will focus on Health and Labor (“Years Added to New Yorker’s Lives!”).

New York 2044 begins as a series of speculative interviews. Folks from organizations working on these issues, as well as others with diverse and interesting perspectives, are invited to step outside of their day-to-day, and dream up future scenarios. Illustrations bring these visions to life, making them accessible, joyful, and personal. Over the run of the project, issues of the newspaper will be distributed to New Yorkers in public spaces at public events.

New York 2044

And example below of an interviewee’s story (Jenny Dubnau).