The City as a Canvas

This book explores how urban spaces and imagery serve as vessels for artistic creation, conveying cultural identity and heritage, by focusing on Macau as a case study. The book examines the role of city imagery in the contexts of World Heritage and intangible cultural heritage, and its transformation into artistic expression. Through field research, artist interviews, and detailed case studies, the book presents the creative processes of 22 artists, revealing how the “mountain-sea-city” imagery is translated into diverse artistic languages and media. By tracing Macau’s historical development, spatial patterns, landscape characteristics, and folk traditions, the text demonstrates how urban imagery functions as a multi-layered symbol connecting natural environments, historical sites, and cultural practices. This volume highlights the significance of artistic interpretation in shaping cultural identity, preserving heritage, and fostering urban memory. It also provides theoretical and methodological insights into how art and design can operate as interdisciplinary tools for reinterpreting and re-presenting cultural heritage in contemporary contexts. It is relevant to researchers, graduate students, artists, and cultural policymakers, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of art, urban space, and heritage, and serves as a practical reference for understanding cross-cultural artistic practice and the narration of urban memory.