In 2021, ARCOS co-directors EG Gionfriddo and Eliot Gray Fisher participated in City to City, an award-winning international program sponsored by the UNESCO Creative Cities of Media Arts. Working with composer Chen Meiyan (China/Germany) and Taeheon Lee (South Korea/UK), they collaborated on told-hold, an interactive artwork which launched online in 2022. The artists, based in Asia, Europe, and North America, created the piece in response to the overlapping crises that characterize contemporary existence: a worldwide health emergency, the existential effects of climate change, political turmoil, and the ongoing struggle for rights and against discrimination.

The artwork uses networked digital technologies to cultivate an individualized, embodied practice of care for a stranger: participants receive a previously shared story, record video of their hand while considering how the story may live in their own body, and share a story of their own to entrust to another. The simple act of conscious, empathic connection with someone we don’t know serves as a rehearsal for the solidarity required to collectively navigate our uncertain future.

In 2023, told-hold was curated by institutions in the US, Colombia, and the UK as a physical installation for exhibition.

- Bodies on the Line, The Guildhall, York, GBR, October 6, 2023

- told-hold, Centro Cultural Colombo Americano, Cali, COL, August 31–December 8, 2023 *PDF: bilingual mobile catalog

- Beyond City to City: A UNESCO Media Arts Exhibition, Austin Central Library, Austin, TX, USA, March 31–May 23, 2023

- North America Creative Cities Forum, Santiago de Querétaro, MEX, August 2022

- City to City 2021 Virtual Exhibition Launch, February 2022