The first iteration of Zuzalu did an incredible job in creating a pop-up city in Montenegro that attracted a large amount of visitors united with similar values and culture. While this may have contributed to the local economy during that time, and opportunities for experiencing another culture, we are interested in learning more about the long-term sustainability impacts of these pop-up cities: are participants interested in potentially moving to the city to continue contributing to the economy long term? How much interaction occurred between temporary visitors and locals? Were there many locals that took part in workshops at Zuzalu? What we’re doing at Akiya Collective focuses on these questions, as well as how to promote more memetic value.

1) Local revitalization: We are actively learning how integration from our online community can happen with existing cities and locales — this is a balancing act of learning how to thrive in the surrounding environment with those who have been there for generations, while also maintaining and contributing our own culture that we bring from various geographical contexts. Our residency had ~30% of locals to international guests — this is reflected in our Discord member list as well. It’s important to integrate local perspectives to provide input and cultural exchange that made interactions meaningful, diversified, and have the capability to build on top of each other. It’s about balancing cultural syncretism and preservation in a way that motions toward established life-ways and architectures (social, ecological, built-environmental).

2) Persistent cultural artifacts: While Zuzalu had a strong art presence across various mediums, there hasn’t been a strong movement of Zuzalu native art telling our story, symbolizing our culture, or creating memes.
    - Art is also important for shaping the physical spaces we live in and the thoughts and feelings we have while we are there, an important part of community health and wellbeing. Beauty is a public good, and spaces and artifacts will communicate value well beyond the transient visitors who come to help create it
    - Akiya Collective will be hosting residencies in Japan devoted to visualizing Zuzalian culture in various media to increase the longevity of the community and its values.