Here is the companion piece to Dystopic Day. Had a lot of trouble synchronizing things so this is the best I can do technically. Dystopic Day should be watched first.
I always find it easier to conceive of a dystopia rather than a utopia. Many years ago I read Dante’s Divine Comedy. I could relate very well with Hell and Purgatory but not Paradise (I never finished reading Paradise). Any way, this is my conception of a utopic day at work. I wonder whether many of the dystopic images of a digital future we viewed during the film festival were really related to our current non-digital conceptions of dystopias. Whereas it is much harder to depict a utopican digital future. Just a thought.
#1 by Nicola Osborne on October 17th, 2009
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Silvana I like the idea that the utopian day is about a personalized space and collaborating in a borderless digital world.
I agree that it is hard to define Utopian futures. When I started working on my artifact I started looking for images of heaven and hell in classical art since I knew I wanted to end up at technology but start by thinking about what utopia and dystopia might be. Not only were there far more dystopic images but there were far more alike than the visions of utopia which tended to really be strongly rooted to specific times and spaces – most often religious or spiritual images rather than utopian visions of day to day life.
I think we can recognize what we fear or dislike much more easily than we can picture what we would long for in an ideal world. However I think that is partly because fear, hate, etc. tend to be more irrational and abstract and visual whereas what we love tends to be personal and much harder to express or share. I like the image of your cat, your colleagues, your friends as a key part of a great day for instance – a very personal vision of something that makes you feel great
#2 by andym on October 18th, 2009
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Silvana, there are three messages I take from your Utopian video.
1. When viewed in context with your first video, there is an immediate sense of comfort conveyed in working from home – coffee mug, dozy cat, happy jazz.
2. Within the comforts of your home study, you commute around the world, for business meetings and catch up with colleagues. The Google Map images convey you being there – there seems a point where reality and digital merge.
3. This is a personal point, one that I will blog more about later. You seem able to communicate well, partly because of your imagination, but also because you have some technical skills in shooiting a video. I am a novice with video editing, so I was often watching and saying to myself – “gosh, wish I could do that.”
Cheers
#3 by jen on October 18th, 2009
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that was great!! I really really liked the ‘travelling’ you did in this video – it was both fun and thought provoking. I got such a start when I saw the street just past my office, where I often buy lunch. Good music choice for both videos, as others have said.
#4 by Henry on October 18th, 2009
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Glad you were able to put together the utopian view – if only to balance your mind.
And YES it is this utopian view allowing ourslelves to be freed from the shackles of physical communting and instead explore the world and people online, after all it is a world community.
It also reduces our carbon footprint.
Hence the digital future may be bright after all – tell Bendito.
#5 by Eneas on October 20th, 2009
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Hi Silvano-For me I see an equation with utopia and dystopia with private and public spaces…two very nice videos which place utopias and dystopias in everyday life.
#6 by sibyller on October 21st, 2009
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Only just managed to watch your second video. (I had some technical problems with this, did others find that it was really slow coming in?) Anyway, I was really pleased to see my artefact up there as well, made me feel very “connected” – and I think that was what it was all about. Strange how real life travelling in your first video was all about feeling diconnected and out of place whereas the real life staying at home was all about communication and connection.
Great videos, both of them!