Subculture Conurbation came about from the idea of two metropolitan cities, Tokyo and Chicago, merging into one mega city to create a new subculture. A conurbation happens when a region comprised of a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, merge to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area. Although these two specific examples of conurbations cannot be physically linked like a traditional conurbation, I have attempted to link them digitally so that they do indeed make up one large city connected with one another by the underlying ideas of urbanization, modernization and industrialization in a playful manner.

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I chose to focus on the similarities and differences in culture, function and size of the two cities to make up my own subculture conurbation. Each of my digital collages is an example of the city’s cultures merging to make up a new example of how the two cities fit together as a new uncharted subcultural. Both Chicago and Tokyo have their own very distinct features, however, as I was submerged in Tokyo I wondered how I could better understand the city if I drew parallels from Tokyo to my home, Chicago. These collages make up the playful parallels I created for myself to better understand the city, while not taking it too seriously I found they created beautiful images that created a new city, separate from both Chicago and Tokyo.