The Utopian Impulse & Its Trouble With Postmodernity

05/10/17 • 26 min

One might argue that the collapse of communism is the loss of the future that really never was, but the fundamental source of fear of Utopianism is rooted in its formal necessity of Utopian closure and its origin in the idea of an idealized settlement and colonization. Can we reclaim Utopia to help us generate new ideas for how to survive and transcend postmodernism? Here's an idea: anti-anti-Utopianism.

Céline Keller

We seem to drown in dystopias reflecting our surrender to the idea that there really is no alternative to capitalism or neoliberalism in particular. All these critical dystopias seem to extrapolate our current situation and what the persistence of this system (the economization of everything) holds in store for us in the future to come. It seems clear that if we want to escape this hopeless outcome we need new ideas for how a future globalized world might work differently. Yet, to generate those ideas using the Utopian impulse seems to be a door closed shut. So how do we get out of this dilemma? I will present to you Fredric Jameson's vision of how to burst that door wide open, with one of the oldest, archaic utopian ideas ever stated.

Céline Keller

Previous Episode

Sci-fi & VR: Narratives of the Future

In this session Antoine Cayrol will explore the new grammar of VR by looking at two sci-fi narrative pieces: I Philip and Alteration.

Antoine Cayrol

Virtual Reality has been portrayed in many science fiction books and films and with last year’s launch of many of the headsets, the age of consumer Virtual Reality is finally here.

However, the grammar of VR is still to be defined and content creators are now on a journey to discover the possibilities offered by this futuristic storytelling medium.

In this session Antoine Cayrol talks about the basic steps to making a VR movie looking at two sci-fi VR movies he produced: I Philip and Alteration.

He will look at various aspects from concept to delivery highlighting the elements that are particularly important in making a VR story. He will discuss writing, storyboarding, financing, shooting and post-production in VR with focus on the narrative and possibilities for interactivity.