NoPlace, GoodPlace, Bad Place

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No Place/Good place/Bad Place utopia/dystopia
No-Place, Good-Place, Bad Place
utopia/dystopia
The term Utopia was coined by Sir Thomas More in
1516, it literally means no-place/ good
place. As a result of the confusion regarding
the definition of the word (mixing up the first
syllable of the word U with the Greek Eu) a
new term was invented, Dystopia, meaning a bad
place.
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• This project attempts to spatially express the
  symbiotic relationship between utopia and
  dystopia.
• I have defined visual criteria for this
  definition through research centered on the
  following questions
• Where does the utopian projection end and
  dystopian reality begin?
• - At what point of Utopia does the bad start
  overpowering the good?
• - Do Utopia and Dystopia exist within each other?
• - Is it possible to isolate the common ground
  that the two states share and which allows for
  this
• transformation?
• - Is this transformation part of a larger
  dialectic cycle of different states?

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A famous biblical story in Genesis tells us the
story of the people of Babel - a flourishing
united humanity in Mesopotamia that crumbled and
fell apart. When the people of Babel decided to
glorify their name and make a monumental tower
that will reach the heavens, God enraged by
this effort of defiance, decided to sabotage the
process by confusing their language so that they
cannot understand each other. As a result the
people in Babel could no longer communicate with
each other, they were forced to stop building and
were scattered upon the face of the entire earth.
The story of Babel tells the transformation of a
society from a Utopian state into a Dystopian
one. It suggests that every Utopia eventually
leads to its own destruction Gods wrath is
merely an allegory, it is a force of nature,
result of human actions and not divine
intervention. According to the story God was
angry with the people of Babel because they
believed that they could build a tower that would
reach the heavens. It was their belief that they
are flawless creatures, that their Utopia
supersedes anything that would come before or
after them that transformed them into a state
of Dystopia. It is not a story of pride and
punishment, but a social tale that warns us from
the impossibility and destructive nature of
Utopia. To create Utopia would be the same as to
attempt to build a tower that would reach the
heavens. This is where the utopian projection
ends and Dystopian reality begins.
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Seemingly two different states, utopia and
dystopia are contained within each other. The
ultimate final stage of utopia as a complete
state is in fact the first step in a
transformation into dystopia since all Utopias
must force limitations in order to maintain their
utopian existence, they are bound to become
Dystopias. A Utopian society is challenged
through the imperfection of its inhabitants only
flawless natured creatures can live in a society
of utopian standards. Since all human beings are
imperfect, in order to maintain a utopia it is
essential to imply strict limits on their
behavior. This inevitable loss of freedom is the
reason that every utopia eventually becomes a
Dystopia.
The Monument to the Third International was
designed by Vladimir Tatlin in the1920s as a
symbol of modernity. The first and second
Internationals attempted to bring all unions and
leftist groups together and unite the working
class. Tatlins tower was built in the image of
the tower of Babel. Much like in the Mesopotamian
culture where the tower was never completed and
Utopia was never fulfilled, Tatlins tower was
never built and The Third International never
took place. The tower was meant to capture the
essence of Revolution using the structure of a
rising spiral. It is not only a symbol of a
revolution, but also a symbol of a dialectic
societal cycle pre-utopian, revolutionary,
Dystopian, and again pre-utopian.
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When I first started drawing ideas I wanted to
express the separation and symbiotic relationship
between the state of utopia and dystopia. I
started with dividing the space in two. Next, I
placed a tube in the partition between the two
sides. My idea was to fill up one side with oil
and the other with ink. I thought that because
both sides will be filled up with the same amount
of fluid they will create an equal pressure and
will not spill to the other side. Thus with
controlled movement of the structure, they will
slowly dissolve each into the other until they
are not distinguishable.
ink
oil
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But this idea seemed too simplistic and didnt
follow the answers of my research. I decided to
examine the criteria I established and based on
that decide on the material used, scale, etc.
Within the context of Constructivism, Tatlins
Tower stood in contradiction to their common
static, symmetrical, concrete made buildings. In
his book We, the author Zamizatin attacks the
Constructivists Soviet architecture and uses
glass buildings to describe a dystopian future,
they lack color, dynamism and tension. Based on
this idea I will use glass as the defining
dystopian instance for the transformation. I will
construct a limited rectangular space within
which the cyclical relationship between dystopia
and utopia will take place.
A drawing of the Tower of Babel by Michael Mccanne
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This 3d scale model takes the shape of a
rectangular room with see through walls. Based on
the research Ive decided to design a space in
which Utopia and Dystopia exist together, always
and at the same time. While one is materialized
the other threatens it with its inevitable
reoccurrence. The use of glass will also
obliterate the sense of privacy and much like the
Crystal Palace in Dostoyevskys Notes from the
Underground will come to symbol the loss of
individualism. As mentioned before Utopias are
based on the idea that everyone acts in the same
way in order to maintain the order of things,
this loss of freedom inevitably leads to
dystopia.
a web of strings from which a tower will hang
down
glass
mirror
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A discussion revolving this model led me to
question my choice to hang the tower down from
the ceiling and not let it rise from the ground.
Positioning the tower on the ground plane will
create a situation in which the viewers assume
that utopia exist between two dystopias (past and
future). When they start climbing the tower they
will find that under them are fragments of the
tower and above a web of strings that does not
allow for the tower (and the vision of utopia) to
fully materialized. Ive considered this option
and started prototyping a scaled model of the
tower, but during this process I realized that by
turning the viewers into an active part of the
installation I imply that they must be a part of
the Utopia to understand the Dystopia. This
discovery helped me understand better my initial
goal to create an experiential space that allows
the visitor to observe the cyclical
transformation of a utopian/dystopian space.
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The final model contains dystopia and utopia
within it. The space is structured in a way that
guides visitors to the center point of the piece
from which they can observe the existence of both
states (utopia and dystopia) at the same time.
When the visitor looks down through utopia they
see its broken fragments - dystopia.
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