Reignite XVII: Culture as Infrastructure, Stories as Power

Reignite XVII brings together the UK’s UNESCO Creative Cities in York for a landmark gathering at Aesthetica Film Festival. Reignite XVII brings together the UK’s UNESCO Creative Cities in York for a landmark gathering at the intersection of climate, attention, and narrative power. As cities face accelerating environmental and digital disruption, this year’s theme asks a defining question: can culture function as infrastructure in a rapidly changing world? Across film, design, literature, music and media arts, cities are no longer simply producing culture — they are deploying it as a living system of adaptation and resilience. From Perth's leadership in craft and folk art, to Glasgow innovation in music, to Aberystwyth and Manchester’s role in shaping ecological imagination through literature, each city demonstrates how creative practice is already embedded in how urban futures are built and understood. Culture is no longer external to infrastructure; it is part of the framework through which cities respond, adapt, and endure. Alongside this, Reignite XVII examines the pressures of the global attention economy, where cultural visibility is shaped by algorithms, platforms, and constant digital competition. In this environment, creative cities face a shared challenge: how to remain distinctive without becoming homogenised. York, as the UK’s only UNESCO City of Media Arts, becomes a critical site for this conversation — a place where storytelling, screen culture, and digital innovation converge. The festival environment offers a rare “attention sanctuary,” where depth, collaboration, and reflection can replace fragmentation and noise. The event also explores storytelling as a force of transformation. From Bradford’s evolving cultural identity to Liverpool’s deep history with music to how Edinburgh, Exeter, Norwich and Nottingham all have literature and storytelling woven into their identity, cities are actively reshaping themselves through narrative. Reignite XVII asks whether stories do more than describe cities — whether they actively construct them. Together, the UK’s UNESCO Creative Cities network explores a shared proposition: that in a time of climate uncertainty and digital acceleration, stories are not simply cultural outputs, but systems of power — shaping how cities think, adapt, and become. After the panels and talks we will then visit the UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO at the De Grey Rooms to for drinks and networking, and to meet businesses operating across the creative sector.