Sir Julius’ novel anticipated a utopian world where women held many positions of authority, before the success of the women’s suffrage movement, and well before female prime ministers and governors-general.
The idea was one of many that came from the workshop in the basement of the Athenaeum building in Dunedin’s Octagon.
The space became a hive for ideas to make the most of the city’s status as a Unesco creative city on the penultimate day of the Creative Cities Southern Hui, when 40 delegates occupied the space to develop possibilities for the future.
Senior lecturer in the Master of communication design programme at Melbourne’s RMIT University Noel Waite, who was a member of the steering committee that achieved City of Literature status for Dunedin in 2014, said initial ideas that came out of the workshop included the graphic novel and other ideas that were "affordable and cheap" for the city.
There were also ideas about getting together with companies like Animation Research to develop creative projects.
Dr Waite said the workshop at the building that housed the Athenaeum library "ties in beautifully with the City of Literature".
He said the idea of the workshop was to explore possibilities of how the city could use the Unesco Creative Cities network.
The network is a project launched in 2004 to promote co-operation among cities that recognise creativity as a major factor in their urban development, and there are 180 cities from 72 countries involved.
The cities are recognised in the fields of literature, crafts and folk arts, media arts, film, design, gastronomy and music.
"It’s what do we do with that in the future, and how do we help the next generation?" Dr Waite said.
He said culture created new business for a city, in Dunedin’s case examples including the warehouse precinct and startup games companies.
The hui ends today with a discussion at the Dunedin School of Art on the Dunedin City Council’s arts and culture strategy Ara Toi Otepoti.
