Utopia as Uncertainty - the issue of decentralisation versus classical utopias

[idealspaces]

Description

The archistic, classical utopia is a completely planned desired state for the future in social and architectural terms. It is the elimination of uncertainty. However all utopias are uncertain because it is a proposed future and the future is uncertain. All utopias, archistic or not equals the intended elimination of uncertainty because their aim is to end history and hence uncertainty.

Decentralisation is needed to ensure full democracy and ensure that human rights are truly lived. The ideal of decentralisation in the Eurosphere is based upon the idea of the greek polis. In times of urban agglomerations, of growing populations and danger of diseases, as the COVID-19 situation reveals - the need for encompassing social control and surveillance increases politically and endangers any serious democratic event of decentralising.

What then about decentralised, so-called „anarchistic“ utopias opposed to the classical, archistic type? And about the hope inherent to every utopia, that humans are liberated from constraints, injustice and pain?

Type: streamed talk
Length: 30 minutes + 15 minutes QA
Date: between August 7-9
Duration: once
Language: english

Objective

To sharpen awareness for the actuality of a well known theme deeply embedded in cultural memory, as a constant hope and myth

Material and Technical Requirements

Platform: videoconferencing

Presenter(s)

Name: Ideal Spaces Working Group
Email: idealspaceswg@gmail.com
Url(s): www.idealspaces.org
Twitter: @Ideal_Spaces_
GitHub: idealspaces

Presenter Bio

Ulrich Gehmann

Based in Karlsruhe/Germany; Ulrich Gehmann is one of the founding members of Ideal Spaces Working Group, established 2015, which deals with conceptions and necessities of human space. His background is in humanist education, biology, anthropology and busiess administration. After his professional career in management and consultancy he studied History at University of Karlsruhe (KIT). During his studies at KIT, he founded of the journal New Frontiers in Spatial Concepts, and led a 5 year-seminar on Social Formatting, together with Rolf-Ulrich Kunze. He currently researches and publishes on occidental mythology, ideal spaces and gestalt issues, and their impact on recent sociocultural reality.

Emőke Bada

Emőke Bada is a media artist, who primarily works with still and moving images, but her experiments often lead her to other types of expression like text, experiences, objects and events. She is an MA graduate of the Intermedia Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Art and the Media Arts Culture Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (Danube University Krems, Aalborg University, City University of Hong Kong). Most of her life she has moved between continents and cultures, using these moves to expose herself to the world and in return unveil the world as she finds it. Through her work and travels she consistently finds herself in doorways and on thresholds between, cultures, processes and methods.