Abstract
This special exhibition, for this year’s BEING HUMAN festival, featured artwork from the Semester 1 project of Level 2 Illustrations students.
It is based on the PhD topic of English postgraduate researcher Rachel Harrison, on women’s science fiction writing, in collaboration with supervisor Keith Williams.
This word-and-image exhibition responds to the work of Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale and other speculative fictions about the future. In particular, it responds to Atwood’s notion of ‘Ustopia’ and the danger that idealistic plans for reforming human society, real or imagined, can lead to unintended consequences:
‘Ustopia is a word I made up by combining utopia and dystopia – the imagined perfect society and its opposite – because, in my view, each contains a latent version of the other.’ Margaret Atwood, ‘Dire Cartographies: The Roads to Ustopia’, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (London: Virago Press, 2011), pp.66-98 (66)
Artwork illustrating student responses to Atwood’s concept and her analysis of the ironic reversibility of utopian visions, fictional or historical.
The student’s own visions of ‘perfect’ utopian worlds which also contain the dangerous potential to become their dystopian opposites.
‘Why is it that when we grab for heaven […] we so often produce hell?’ (Atwood, p.84)
‘Where has utopian thinking gone? Because it never fully disappears: we’re too hopeful a species for that. “Good,” for us, may always have a “Bad” twin, but its other twin is “Better.”’ (Atwood, p.94)
It is suitable for all ages, with a particular focus on young adults or anyone interested in Science Fiction or female authors.
It is based on the PhD topic of English postgraduate researcher Rachel Harrison, on women’s science fiction writing, in collaboration with supervisor Keith Williams.
This word-and-image exhibition responds to the work of Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale and other speculative fictions about the future. In particular, it responds to Atwood’s notion of ‘Ustopia’ and the danger that idealistic plans for reforming human society, real or imagined, can lead to unintended consequences:
‘Ustopia is a word I made up by combining utopia and dystopia – the imagined perfect society and its opposite – because, in my view, each contains a latent version of the other.’ Margaret Atwood, ‘Dire Cartographies: The Roads to Ustopia’, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (London: Virago Press, 2011), pp.66-98 (66)
Artwork illustrating student responses to Atwood’s concept and her analysis of the ironic reversibility of utopian visions, fictional or historical.
The student’s own visions of ‘perfect’ utopian worlds which also contain the dangerous potential to become their dystopian opposites.
‘Why is it that when we grab for heaven […] we so often produce hell?’ (Atwood, p.84)
‘Where has utopian thinking gone? Because it never fully disappears: we’re too hopeful a species for that. “Good,” for us, may always have a “Bad” twin, but its other twin is “Better.”’ (Atwood, p.94)
It is suitable for all ages, with a particular focus on young adults or anyone interested in Science Fiction or female authors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Dundee |
| Media of output | Other |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2023 |
| Event | Ustopias: Utopias, Dystopias And Margaret Atwood - Global Room, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom Duration: 13 Nov 2023 → 25 Nov 2023 |