About the Project
Invisible Cities
Invisible Cities is a novel comprised of short vignettes describing cities that only exist in our imagination. Marco Polo sits with the aging Kublai Khan and describes the cities of his empire: cities of memory and desire, of signs and the dead, cities so thin they are held up by their own absence. The emperor suspects they are all one city. So does the reader.
Frequently Asked Questions
About the project
Who’s behind this?
The Invisible Citizen is an independent project run by Rebecca G. Power, an artist working at the intersection of games, experience design, and technology. You can see more of her work at www.rebeccagpower.com.
Is this affiliated with Calvino’s estate or publisher?
The Invisible Citizen is a fan project. It is not affiliated with the publisher of Invisible Cities or the Calvino estate.
Do I need to have read the book?
You do not have to finish the book to begin playing, but you need to read about a city in order to photograph it.
Playing
Does the place need to be famous?
Not at all. Any place that captures the essence of the city will be considered.
Can a real place be more than one city?
A location in the real world can comprise many invisible cities, but every submission can capture only one.
What makes a good photo?
High resolution photos with considered composition are most likely to be accepted. Grainy or blurry photos are rarely accepted. While photos can include people, selfies or posed photos are rarely accepted.
Your photo
How are photos chosen?
Photos are reviewed within about a week of submission. You’ll get an email when your photo has been reviewed.
Who owns my photo?
You do. By submitting, you give The Invisible Citizen a non-exclusive license to show the photo on the site and on our social accounts, always with your credit. You can ask us to take it down at any time.
How do you protect my location?
If your photo has GPS data, we use it to place the pin, and you can move the pin before you submit. On the site, your photo appears with the place name you give it, its town or area and country, and a map pin rounded to within about a kilometer. Only the editors see the exact spot. Every copy of your photo shown on the site has its metadata, including GPS, removed.
Will my photo end up in a book or an exhibition?
Possibly. If we ever gather photos for print or a show, we will ask you first, credit you, and never use a photo you have asked us to take down.
Using the site
How do I get the weekly prompt?
Subscribe to the mailing list for weekly Dispatches or check the homepage for the city of the week.