Premise

The place: Utopia

1) Premise

What is utopia? (Etymology & Definition)

From utopia place ...

utopia. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved April 04, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/utopia

From utopia place ...

utopia. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved April 04, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/utopia

How to get there?

Utopia by definition is “nowhere”. One cannot practically go to utopia. Even though many societies named places after this mythical destination. Places like Cloud Cuckoo Land, Arcadia, Atlantis, Cockaigne, Utopia planitia, Star trek, Neverland and Wonderland or even Shangri-La are more or less fictional. Hence, one can only fantasize and communicate utopia his/her own manner.

This perplexing notion has been depicted by philosophers and intellectuals since the ancient Greeks from Homer (The island of Phaiakians), Plato (The Republic) and Aristophanes (The birds), to Thomas More (Utopia) and greatly influenced surrealist artists and futurist science.

How has this influenced societies and consequently us as individuals and in what aspect?

How can individuals share their thoughts and visuals of utopia in this very blog?

Or are we already there, yet we fail to see it in our ever going quest for perfection?

In this project, we will explore the concept of a contemporary utopia such as the advent of the Internet amongst other types of utopia and how those are interweaved. So, if Internet could be considered the utopia of or our era, then the way to get there is to have access to a digital device to actually be online. This is how online communities are formed throughout the globe.

So if utopia is:

No place

No procession

No boundaries (country wise)

No order (debatable)

Random structure (debatable)

Unlimited access (debatable)

So internet is!

Describe utopia: idealism vs. realism

My perception of utopia is an amalgam of a well structured city, yet bearing anarchy. A freedom inspired by human rights, equalism, altruism and pacifism. People live in harmony with nature. As mentioned by J. Lennon in his song “Imagine”, it could be a state without borders or religions, nothing to kill or die for, whilst people share the entire world in its presence without force or compulsion. Perhaps in this world politics is to the interest of everybody and decisions would be approved by internet plebiscite and implemented by voluntary, elected intellectuals. Humanity is satisfied in its reality.

Utopia as a term tends to be idealistic and thus opposing to pragmatism. Yet again realising utopia is viable through merging it with reality, perhaps by feeling content with what we already have. As we will see utopia resembles and flirts with pragmatism and vice versa. “It is not only reality including elements of utopia, but also utopia that occasionally flirts with reality”.(Papaggelis Th. (07/05/2000), “The Flirt of utopia & reality”Newspaper “To Vima”,p.B14, retrieved April 04, 2007 from website: http://tovima.dolnet.gr/print_article.php?e=B&f=12925&m=B14&aa=2 )

What is about this place that you want to communicate?

• The exciting paradox of the human nature
• The neurosis of perfection in humans
• The unceasing vanity to success an ultimate state (money, power, knowledge)
• The creation of “escape lands” in avoidance of the preciousness of present time
• The variety and types of utopia conceptions in different cultures-societies-individuals
• The amount of inspiration deriving from this concept

How does your idea relate to the visual code you are interested? (Aesthetic Method)

A blog is website where entries are made in journal style to communicate thoughts, ideas or experiences. They exist in a cyberspace we call the internet, a space we cannot hear or see without a medium! Therefore arguable enough whether is realistically exists; just like utopias!

In this blog space, the challenge is to depict a utopia within the realm of pragmatism. The visuals created accompanied by texts are destined to be subjective as much as the concept of utopia itself. For readers this is an open invitation to simply share their own ideas of utopia and what that means to them.