From 5 to 15 October, the Creative City of Media Arts of Sapporo, Japan, has hosted another edition of No Maps, the Japanese creative convention, designed to create new business opportunities from the intersection of cutting edge technologies and to explore the interconnectivity of creative forms.

The worlds of film, music and artificial intelligence having today become borderless; No Maps 2017 has explored new uncharted territories in creative forms, practices and expressions. Through competitions, exhibitions conferences, workshops, short films screenings, as well as music performances, the event invited to cross borders between arts.

Some of the topics featured in the conferences and meet-ups included Artificial Intelligence, auto-driving vehicles, the emergence of the sharing economy, Virtual Reality (VR), etc. All tracks were organized in an attempt to foster local industry and culture, and to create new discoveries and encounters between people across different creative fields.

Over 150 local, national and international groups of musicians, 3,500 short films from 99 countries, and international experts are featured, including Hideaki Ogawa from Ars Electronica Future Lab (Linz, Austria, Creative City of Media Arts). The main exhibitions were open to the general public throughout 520m of the city center underground walkway, which has welcomed about 55,000 pedestrians per day. Awareness-raising activities on the Creative City’s initiatives were a key part of these exhibitions.