SANT’AMBROGIO WELCOME CENTER (Milano, 2048)

In 2020 the global pandemic caused by the spread of COVID-19 radically changed our social habits, forcing the citizens to stay in quarantine and depriving them of their freedom to contrast the spread of the virus. 37 years after, in 2057, the spread of COVID-57, a novel global pandemic, once again hits the planet forcing the governments to re-activate the measures of lock-down. In response to this global threat the Municipality of Bologna, together with other European cities, launches an experimental programe called “Hologram City”. The program consists in the spread of special flying drones which are able to project on-air the holograms of the quarantined citizens. Basically each citizen can connect to his personal drone from his computer at home and -after being scanned - can virtually move around the city through the avatar hologram projected by the flying drone. In this way, according to its designers, people could gather and claim back the public space of which they have been deprived. What is clear in this context is that the technology of holograms, initially popularyized by some 80’s Sci-Fi masterpieces such as Blade Runner and Star Wars, has reached its highest potentinal, finally becoming reality.