If i had more time........

A series of these pictures representing different moods and traits would be created if further time was given on top of the four weeks. There would also no doubt be far more research undertaken on not only human behaviour but also other incidents and events throughout history that relate to Dystopia.

My own response

In response to the 9/11 poster on the previous post here is m own response in reference to the london riots. The statement 'fire in your eyes' is relevant as the statement relates to anger. The fire is also show in the image.

9/11 Awarness

After looking at various awareness posters i felt that it was something similar i wanted to relate to my theme of human traits. This was to ensure humans realise that they are responsible for all of the negative situations that are on the earth apart from acts of god such as earthquakes.

Rise of the planet of the apes - Caring too much.

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) shows how human beings cannot deal with being second in command after being so used to leadership. The plot relates to I Am Legend where in effort to create a drug that can cure a disease a Dystopia is formed where the apes, by using the effects of the drug to begin a revolution against humanity.

Human traits showed in Lord of the Flies

The book shows again how human traits are usually the root for all Dystopian situations. The plot involves a group of boys who find a temporary way of upholding equality but when this fails the book highlights human flaws common especially in youth such as bullying to gain power and it shows how easily violence and in the end death can occur.

Human Weakness in Wall-E

Wall-E s (2008) shows almost perfectly as it illustrates how the earth in the future has fallen victim to consumerism and general human greed. The earth has slowly become inhabitable and the human population is forced to retreat to living in space. To make matters worse laziness occurs which put off the cleaning of earth so the people are forced to stay in space for generations until their bodies have deformed through evolution.

London riots caused by human traits

These riots were the cause of human weakness as there was a need to avenge the death of a man who was shot dead by police. A peaceful protest escalated to a full-scale riot that involved fighting and looting, none of which solved the problem. It was possible that some rioters did not even know the reason they were doing it as they were just following a crowd and hoping for something to loot. It could be said that the rioters had too much pride to give in to the police so escalated things in order to overhaul them or they were simply trying to show off. In terms of showing off to prove power it has been seen in the film Jurassic Park where a plan to create an island of dinosaurs goes horrifically wrong and ends up with them taking over.

More Atheists

This chart show the number of 'non-believers' is growing.

An atheist view is extremely significant when reflecting upon the modern climate. With reference to the riots that began in London this year for example, it could be argued that in an age where statistics show that fewer and fewer people believe in God, this lack of faith allows them to get involved in criminal activities and not worry about being punished by God. Also in terms of figures of authority it was evident that police do not strike the same amount of fear as they once did.

Human weakness in I am Legend

The film I Am Legend (2007) is extremely significant in showing how human behaviour and weakness shows an inability to accept illness. The film shows how experimentation of a drug, which is apparently a cure for cancer, ends up wiping out a vast majority of human life on earth. In hindsight it would have been beneficial for humans to just let nature take its course rather than try to interfere but the inability to allow loved ones to die was a massive weakness.

Trying to create the 'perfect race'

The subjects of Utopia and Dystopia are very broad and complex but it would be interesting to see how human traits and weakness are denying a Utopian society and actually causing more of a Dystopia. An obvious example is the Holocaust where there was an attempt to kill millions in effort to create a sort of ‘master race’. Leaders such as Adolph Hilter (1889-1945) may have looked at this in a way of creating a Utopia with a perfect set of human beings but was also creating Dystopia for the millions of victims, most notably the Jewish community. The Holocaust exhibition in London shows images (Image 1) of how there was a system in place that measured people’s features to ensure they were within specific limits to be classed as suitable for the ‘master race’, which was called the Aryan race.

One Utopia is anothers Dystopia

Dystopia could be compared to hell whereas Utopia is heaven, saying that although they are thought to be completely different both can seem very similar as one person’s Utopia could be another’s Dystopia. A film that shows this is The Island (2005) where people think they are aiming for a perfect society but in truth it does not exist and they are trapped in an environment where they constantly overlooked by higher authorities.

Human Traits

it has become obvious that the reason for a lack of utopia is the negative traits that humans have such as greed and anger. the list on the website link below shows how many traits humans have and how many negative traits are getting in the way of utopia. the more obvious way of finding utopia is to have no humans on the planet. for example in the film where there is no humans the city is strangely peaceful.

http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/Personal/Factors.htm

The Island

In the year 2019, Lincoln Six Echo lives in an isolated compound which strictly regulates its inhabitants' lives. Overseers control every aspect of the residents' lives, from diet and free time activities to social relationships. The inhabitants hope to win a lottery to go to "the Island", the only place on Earth not contaminated by a deadly pathogen.

The films shows how a higher figure is controlling everyone from what they wear to what they eat. The quote seen earlier which goes along the line of a lie told long enough becomes the truth is relevant here where everyone believes in a island which is seen as a utopia but it actually doesn't exist. The truth becomes apparent and the facilty where they live in then becomes more of a prison like place (dystopia) .

Wall-E

The film is set in 2805, with Earth an abandoned planet covered in trash, the result of decades of mass consumerism facilitated by the megacorporation Buy-n-Large (BnL). Giving up on restoring the ecosystem, BnL evacuated Earth's population in fully automated starliners, leaving behind an army of trash compactor robots called "WALL-E" (Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth Class) to clean up for an intended five-year period. By 2110, however, the air on Earth became too toxic to sustain life, forcing humanity to remain in space.

Although generally regarded as a childrens film it shows how consumerism is slowly destroying the world. The film simply gives a wild guess at what the future may hold.

Zeitgeist: The Movie

The movie is a great source of alternate theories of major events such as religion and the 9/11 bombing. It shows how there may be more than what people believe is the truth.

Main Topics Discussed
- War and Terror staged to cause rifts between east and west for oil resources.
- How religion may not be real. Man made to give people something to fear.

Conspiracy Theories

A lie told often enough becomes the truth. – Vladimir Lenin

I want to include quotes which stimulate thought and controversy for example the 9/11 bombings have been a great topic for conspiracy theorists. By adding this quote it seems that there has been somme sort of cover up by the government to hide the real truth about 9/11. Zeitgeist is a very interesting documentary/film which has shown some very convincing theories about the 9/11 'terrorist attacks'.

Ideas for Outcome

For an outcome i want to mix images of violence which directly relate to dystopia and add a quote from history which relates to it.

The Link below shows various famous quotes from history.
http://exploringdystopia.freeforums.org/dystopian-quotes-t296.html

A few ones from Hitler -
it is not truth that matters, but victory. – Adolf Hitler


The victor will never be asked if he told the truth. – Adolf Hitler


Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong. – Adolf Hitler


What luck for rulers, that men do not think. – Adolf Hitler


The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one. – Adolf Hitler


Only force rules. Force is the first law. – Adolf Hitler

Lack of Fear

It could be argued that the recent events such as war and rioting are created through people having a lack of respect and fear of higher powers such as authority and religion. In terms of religion figures reveal the number of people who do not believe in god are increasing thus fearing no backlash for their action after death. As some people believe that actions during life are judged by a god after death and this is where you will find if you are to go a sort of heaven like place or hell.

People are also now taking extreme measure if showing that they have no respect for count leaders such as the government and by looking at footage of the recent London riots it is obvious that people no longer have the same fear for police as they once did. It was disturbing to see people looting from shops whilst being watched by police. Police vehicles were also vandalized.

Film - Book of Eli

The film 'Book of Eli' is set in a dystopian future and the entire way though is shot in a sepia style tint. The tint gives an abnormal style feel and without even following the plot there is an unnatural feel to the film.

The plot of the films follows on from a nuclear apocalypse where civilization is on its knees. The character is in possession of the last bible left on earth, something which is coveted by many of the remaining people left on earth. The film reveals how without faith or leadership how people turn animal like and turn into gangs.

I found i interesting how the gangs in the film related to the current gang culture which is something which played a huge part in the recent London riots. This shows a massive lack of respect for higher figures whether it be religion or authority.

Dinotopia - James Gurney

A Bizzare and unique state where humans and dinosaurs exist peacefully. An unlikely Utopia is formed. I believe this novel shows Utopia can only exist in fictional bizarre and unique circumstances such, this also relates to surrealist artwork.

Four years after being shipwrecked on the island of Dinotopia, Arthur Denison and his sixteen-year-old son, Will, continue their explorations of this fantastic land, where dinosaurs and humans coexist as equals in peaceful harmony, for the most part. Will has trained to become a Skybax Corps pilot, riding the largest flying creature that has ever lived. As Will patrols the skies on his Skybax named Cirrus, his scientist father mounts an expedition to the fabled World Beneath, hoping to explore a long-lost Dinotopian civilization, the traces of which he glimpsed in the first book.

Denison is accompanied on his expedition by a cigar-chomping, treasure-seeking old salt named Lee Crabb, who serves as guide; a beautiful woman, Oriana Nascava, who holds a mysterious key; and Denison’s faithful dinosaur translator, a Protoceratops named Bix. Their journey generates more questions than answers, however, as they discover the remains of an ancient and more technologically advanced civilization hidden deep within the bowels of the earth.

The book’s main feature is author/illustrator James Gurney’s beautiful color illustrations: his realistic depictions of dinosaurs lumbering among humans down stone-paved streets lined with medieval buildings, the ornate costumes of both humans and dinosaurs, the imaginative mechanical gizmos reminiscent of Jules Verne, the elaborate maps, and the underground palaces and ancient treasures. The book combines a child’s fascination with dinosaurs, fairy-tale costumes and settings, and an Indiana Jones-like adventure to create a winning addition to the world of children’s literature.

Source - http://www.enotes.com/dinotopia-world-beneath-salem/dinotopia-world-beneath

Planet of the Apes - Pierre Boulle

The books completely flips how the current world looks and what some people think of utopia is. The planet is run by intelligent apes who are vastly superior to the primitive humans they rule over. There is a sense of Dystopia for humans who then are in a position that they have never felt as they are no longer at the top of the animal chain. This is a shock to the system as human have always been the superior species and when they are no longer it becomes a state of misery and shock. It is interesting as even in the real world humans take for granted that they are the superior species and have not even considered a world where that is not the case.

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Animal Farm shows how a Utopia can quickly turn into dystopia if the leadership is changed. Also the books shows how different parties of animals argue as their view of utopia is vastly different to others, thus causing conflict.

Different types of traits are shpown too such as hypocrisy. In a perfect and ideal world there is balance and equality but this is not shown by the pigs who dont practice what they are preaching, thinking themselves above others.

The books intersets me as although the characters are animals they resemble human behaviour and this is an eye opener as it shows how animal like humans can become when craving power.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Written in 1931 and published the following year, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is a dystopian—or anti-utopian—novel. In it, the author questions the values of 1931 London, using satire and irony to portray a futuristic world in which many of the contemporary trends in British and American society have been taken to extremes. Though he was already a best-selling author, Huxley achieved international acclaim with this now-classic novel. Because Brave New World is a novel of ideas, the characters and plot are secondary, even simplistic. The novel is best appreciated as an ironic commentary on contemporary values.

The story is set in a London six hundred years in the future. People all around the world are part of a totalitarian state, free from war, hatred, poverty, disease, and pain. They enjoy leisure time, material wealth, and physical pleasures. However, in order to maintain such a smoothly running society, the ten people in charge of the world, the Controllers, eliminate most forms of freedom and twist around many traditionally held human values. Standardization and progress are valued above all else. These Controllers create human beings in factories, using technology to make ninety-six people from the same fertilized egg and to condition them for their future lives. Children are raised together and subjected to mind control through sleep teaching to further condition them. As adults, people are content to fulfill their destinies as part of five social classes, from the intelligent Alphas, who run the factories, to the mentally challenged Epsilons, who do the most menial jobs. All spend their free time indulging in harmless and mindless entertainment and sports activities. When the Savage, a man from the uncontrolled area of the world (an Indian reservation in New Mexico) comes to London, he questions the society and ultimately has to choose between conformity and death.

Source - http://www.enotes.com/brave-new-world

1984 - George Orwell

George Orwell's view of how society could end up

Published in 1948 and set thirty-six years in the future, 1984 is George Orwell's dark vision of the future. Written while Orwell was dying and based on the work of the Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin, it is a chilling depiction of how the power of the state could come to dominate the lives of individuals through cultural conditioning. Perhaps the most powerful science fiction novel of the twentieth century, this apocalyptic satire shows with grim conviction how Winston Smith’s individual personality is wiped out and how he is recreated in the Party’s image until he does not just obey but even loves Big Brother. Some critics have related Winston Smith’s sufferings to those Orwell underwent at preparatory school, experiences he wrote about just before 1984. Orwell maintained that the book was written with the explicit intention “to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society they should strive after.”

Source - http://www.enotes.com/1984

Human Traits - Lord of the Flies

By looking at earlier threads it is obvious that almost all dytopian situations root from human weaknesses and traits. I feel that a perfect novel to illustrate this is the Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The book shows a society which seeks utopia but reaches dystopia through misery through things such as bullying through the gain for power.

The plot involves a group of stranded boys who find a temporary way of upholding equality but when that falls through it shows the massive flaws of anarchy and authority and how easy violence can occur.

Graphic Agitiation 2

In terms of looking at images relating to Dystopia i found that the book Graphic Agitation 2 was very relevant in term of looking at controversial and damaging issues such as Violence/Sex/Racism.

http://www.phaidon.co.uk/store/design/graphic-agitation-2-9780714841779/

I found that there was a huge emphasis and attack on huge corporations such as McDonalds and the effect that they are having on the modern society. Relating to graphic design there is an emphasis on global brands

Interesting Article (guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2006/aug/12/art

English Civil War

In reference to the London riots i feel it is important to talk about the English civil war between the royalist and the parliamentarians. Although it has different sides i feel that the london riots is similar as it was between angry youth and the higher authorities such as police.

Due to human traits and people having problems with authority and being told what to do it can cause rift with escalate and turn into serious events such as war and rioting. The Civil war was similar as it was in effect a battle for control as neither party wanted to serve under the other.

Book Studied - English Civil Wars ( A Brief History of)

Photography in Disaster

I am very interested in photography in places of disaster whether it be man made or a natural disaster. I will look at several disaster such as

- 9/11 Terrorist Attacks
- London Riots 2011
- Civil War
- London Terrorist Attacks

I will probablt lean towards the local attacks in london rather than the overseas attacks. But i feel that looking at civil war will be very relevant as it directly relates to the london riots as it is a situation of a country being torn apart not by another but its own people.

Art and Agenda

This book is very interesting and has other artist conceptual ideas on the new millenium and topics such as the financial crisis. There is great mix of politics and art. There are also references to other issues such as poverty, sexism and racism. I feel that due to the dark nature of the book there is a definite sense of dystopia. As a again humans action are taking the world further away from utopia. One other interesting thing is that the book not only looks as man made disaster but also acts of god such as the earthquake in Haiti which created a hell on earth type scenario.

This type of book highlights the type of direction i want to follow in my path to understand dystopia as i feel the mixture of imagery and photography is a great way of capturing events such as 9/11 and more recently the london riots.

Ergonomics - Following on from Design Museum

i found it interesting to see the ergonomics involved in the design museum. For me it represented how the higher business powers have introduced methods for more work to be created by employees by ensuring they are comfortable in the work place for extended periods without break. For example the diagram above shoes a perfect enviroment for an employee and it includes things such as appropriate back support and best viewing distance from computer screen.

"Utopia" Book by Thomas More

My Summary
Thomas More's book "Utopia" was written with to give the message that people matter rather than one ruling power. The book suggests that power equals corruption. This could be related to the riots in london where there was an obvious problem with authority and a seeking of equality. I have learnt from the book that throughout time there has been endless sin related to the actions of humans. Therefore because of human natural traits there can be no utopia as long as humans exist.

Tate Modern London

In order to find out how other artists reproduced their ideas of utopia it was important to go to the Tate Modern as its section on surrealism was interesting to see artist such as Picasso (previously mentioned in older post) create unrealistic outcomes in paint form. The way surrealism has no bounds allowed work to represent utopia and Dystopia in the view of the specific artist. It is important to remember that one artists utopia can be another artist's dystopia so it in interesting to understand the artist mindset at the time of creating the artwork.

Design Museum - London

Looking at Utopia the design museum was a good place to start as it displayed items and products that designers thought would contribute to making a perfect or ideal world (Utopia). One interesting thing to look at was how ergonomics played a part in the design as they designers were not happy with making visually nice products they also wanted to ensure that the consumer felt comfortable for extended periods of time whilst using them. One example of this is the ergonomic keyboard which actually looked very odd but in fact all the keys on it were placed in specific places which would cause the user to feel comfortable.

Focusing More on Dystopia

I want to focus more on Dystopia as i feel that i will be able to find more things to work on. The reason i think this is because i feel there are very few examples of utopia around and in real life it would be impossible to attain utopia. Whereas it could be argued that we are currently living in a dystopia with events such as 9/11 and the london riots occurring. As the London riots happened quite recently i think that in terms of moving along with my project it would be a good topic to continue with.

Imperial War Museum - The Holocaust Museum

The holocaust exhibition in the imperial war museum is interesting and also extremly relevant to dystopia but also utopia. The way it relates to dystopia is obvious as the holocaust was pretty much as close as you can get to hell on earth foe the jewish population in europe as they were cruelly murdered for their beliefs. It may seem strange but uptopia also relates to the holocaust as in Hitler's eyes he felt that by killing jews could create the perfect race.

Tate Modern - Pablo Picasso

During the exhibition and taking a look at various paintings. I found that various surrealist painings could distort reality and therfore allow the artist to break the rules and use his imagination to creat his or her interpretation of utopia. One example is this piece of work by Pablo Picasso. The piece is called 'nude woman wirh necklace'. Here picasso revised the traditional ideal of beauty with particular violence, subjecting the body with a repeated assault in paint. So therefore picasso has has changed the beauty of a female body to represent distopia.

Trip to London

In preparation for the Utopia and Dystopia i visited both the Tate Modern and Imperial War Museums. My aim at the Tate Modern was to find how other artists had interpretated uptopia and dystopia. The main part i was intenting to research in the tate was the surrealist section, the reason for this is because i feel the more surreal piece of a show to extremes interpretations of utopia and distopia. At the design museum my aim was to visit the holocaust museum, the reason being is because the nazi regime relates heavily to dystopia for many people but interestingly for people like Hitler it was actually Utopia.

Definition of Utopia and Distopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. It has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia.

Dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. Dystopian societies feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, various forms of active and passive coercion. Ideas and works about dystopian societies often explore the concept of humans abusing technology and humans individually and collectively coping, or not being able to properly cope with technology that has progressed far more rapidly than humanity's spiritual evolution. Dystopian societies are often imagined as police states, with unlimited power over the citizens

Source : http://www.hydrogen2oxygen.net/dystopia-or-utopia/