A utopia (/juːˈtoʊpiə/ yoo-TOH-pee-ə) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members.
In 1516 Sir Thomas More coined the name ‘utopia’ for his imaginary island society, he drew upon the Greek derivation of the words ou-topos (meaning ‘no place’ or ‘nowhere’) and eu-topos (meaning a ‘good place’)
A lot of words stem from greek words and when I begin to think of utopia it makes me think of Ancient Greece specifically within Greek mythology and even more specifically the golden age of the gods, which to some extent included the humans. However, Zeus and the gods’ reign over humans were more for the gods’ enjoyment, but the humans did not know of things like old age and illness or despair before Pandora released the jar (pithos) with all the negatives bringing an end to human utopia. Except hope. I want to further research this as I am really fixated, and have been since I was young, on Ancient Greek Mythology.
The idea of utopia will vary person to person because it is an ideal society but in reality not everyone would be truly happy unless it was some sort of individual view point. To start thinking of ideas for how I illustrate utopia I would have to research what I personally like and idealise. What would my perfect society be. It certainly wouldn’t look like todays society.
As a utopia is never truly attainable in my opinion I am focusing on the hypothetical which means I can be as outlandish as I want to be with my suggestions and illustrations. I can reach for the stars, also seeing how one person’s utopia will be different for another I can push narratives involving unrealistic expectations. For example, a matriarchal society or one with ruling omnipotent cats, Egyptians?
Hypothetical utopias focus on equality in categories such as economics, government and justice, and other things. With the method to achieve utopia and it’s structure varying, according to the ideology of the people it concerns.
I started to think of utopian artworks and researched this: Noble suggests that, “for artworks to be utopian, they need to offer two things which seem to pull in rather different directions: on one hand a vision or intimation of a better place than the here and now we inhabit; and on the other some insight into what Bloch terms the ‘darkness, so near’ the contradictions and limitations that drive our will to escape the here and now in the first place.” So to an audience a utopian artwork needs to represent something that they desire, a better future. This is why utopia isn’t attainable as it represents the lack of something.
My research has started to get me noticing the lack of perfectionism in todays world. I can feel the gaps in society now, so that how I moved forward with my research, I look at what should be fixed. As I considered how to go forward with my research further, my tutor suggested that I should think about how when I create a work, what words would be typed into a search engine or AI to produce the images that would be my final pieces. I needed to research what keywords would be prevalent in my works; what themes I wanted to push forward.
When I first heard of utopia it made me think of a tv show I recently watched: ‘The Orville’ in which it is set 400 years in the future where humans have perfected space travel and are part of a planetary union. But back on earth it is a utopia there’s no illness that can’t be fixed almost instantly, there is no need for money, no such thing as poverty or hunger.
In the sense, if our technology today was perfected but in a fantastical approach, completely imaginary, I think of films like avatar where Pandora is a perfect planets where its inhabitants are living harmoniously with nature until humans come to destroy the planet. Which is another reason why utopia can’t be achieve. Humans seem to consistently want to conquer and move and advance, so there isn’t a true top level, humans wouldn’t be satisfied.
In an ideal world I would include beings who are agile but robotic because they don’t have imperfections there would be great trains and public transport, lots of plants and a perfect mix of commercial industrial and residential, things have nice colours there’s lots of sunlight and I get to be in my room that fulfils all my needs. My room is my personal space to recharge. I want to explore that by combining robots and humans to see if there can be a perfect balance of the two, the best of both worlds in a way.