Persistence of Utopia

The notion of 'utopia' is largely derided in contemporary discourse as it is seen to be naïve, anachronistic and unfashionable. the utopian zeal that dominated much of the radical thinking of the 20th century has crumbled into the ruins of neoliberal late capitalism. Concepts of 'utopia' and its inverse 'dystopia' have been a mainstay of science fiction and fantasy since the inception of these disciplines and, according to the American literary theorist Frederic Jameson, the very idea of utopia is itself a sub-set of a wider genre that has become science fiction. The utopian tradition persists at the fringes of many contemporary forms, in writing, the fine arts, architecture, and video games. Moreover, some of the most radical, provocative and beautiful architectural proposals of recent times are to be found in the realms of science fiction and fantasy cinema, computer games and speculative visualisations.

The exhibition Persistence of Utopia was part of the Cosmia Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction Festival which was organised in venues across the Kirklees region. To explore an expanded notion of 'utopia' as well as questions of its endurance as an idea. The Persistence of Utopia exhibition included works in a variety of media by Stella Baraklianou, Nic Clear, Claire Diggle, Danilo Di Mascio, Donal Fitzpatrick, Roddy Hunter, Marko Jobst, Spyridon Kaprinis, Sara Nesteruk, Hyun Jun Park, Christian Petersen, Andrew Taylor, Katrina Whitehead and Simon Woolham. This selection was made from works submitted following an open call by Professor Nic Clear and Cosmia Festival Director David Smith.