Mapping Utopias and Dystopias: Marvels and Catastrophes
19. Juni 2025, 19.00 Uhr Kunstuniversität Linz, Hauptplatz 6, Hörsaal A
raum&designstrategien laden zum Gastvortrag von Peter T. Lang im Rahmen der Reihe Top down - Button up Dialogues.
Public Lecture on utopias, distopias and other ways of imagining cities
There are times, much like these, when the search for utopia seems most futile. This led me to consider the possibility of creating a taxonomy on utopias, and from there I gradually moved to the idea of mapping a topology of utopias, an atlas depicting hypothetical regions where different utopic realities might co-exist together, and that could possibly suggest new forms of utopia not yet conceived.
Thomas Moore’s book Utopia was published in 1516, and next year the manuscript will be 510 years old. It might be surprising this narrative has lasted so long. To many people, utopia is a discredited concept, to others, it represents that which cannot ever be achieved. Marcuse spoke about anti-utopias, the double negation providing a real possibility or a way out of the paradox, while some have bypassed utopia altogether for a much more orthodox Marxist revolutionary politic.
My goal is not to provide unassailable evidence utopia exists or once existed, nor to give in to the worst of dystopian outcomes. My view is simpler, i see many typologies of utopia, some straightforward and realizable, while other utopias never were meant to fit into a human universe.
I will also give an "epilogue," where I will talk briefly about my work on "Marvels and Catastrophes," and I will present an animation short I co-wrote together with the Swedish artist Jens Evaldsson called: "Axis Mundi and the Stomach without End, first screened at Färgfabriken Konsthall, Stockholm, in 2020.
Peter Lang is an independent artist, author, educator and curator. He is a former Professor at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm where he taught postgraduate courses from 2013 to 2019. He previously held the position of Associate Professor at Texas A&M School of Architecture (2001-2013). He earned a PhD in urban studies and Italian history from New York University and a Bachelors of Architecture from Syracuse University. In Stockholm Lang founded R-lab, a public platform for critical research and creative artistic practice, and subsequently launched the initiative “Marvels and Catastrophes,” that works to understand and engage in the culture of disaster. Lang currently is an instructor at NABA in Rome for the Masters program in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies. He is a co-founder of the video animation production studio YellowGloveLab, which focuses on public art and the environment.
Lecture series by space&designstrategies
October 2024 - June 2025
chaired by Lorenzo Romito
