Imaginary Worlds

All artists, in essence, are creating imaginary worlds. The process of creation invariably leads to thinking about logic, rules,  or systems.  Two "places"that often occupy our imaginations are at opposite ends of the spectrum- Heaven and Hell. Below we see the definition for the philosophical communities that occupy these ends of the spectrum.

Utopia (/juːˈtoʊpiə/) is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was coined in Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. It has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia.

The word comes from the Greek: οὐ ("not") and τόπος ("place") and means "no place". The English homophone eutopia, derived from the Greek εὖ ("good" or "well") and τόπος ("place"), means "good place". This, due to the identical pronunciation of "utopia" and "eutopia", gives rise to a double meaning.

A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. Examples of dystopias are characterized in books such as Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid's Tale, The Giver andBattle Royale. The Iron Heel was described by Erich Fromm as "the earliest of the modern Dystopian"^[1]. Dystopian societies feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, and various forms of active and passive coercion. Ideas and works about dystopian societies often explore the concept of humans abusing technology and humans individually and collectively coping, or not being able to properly cope with technology that has progressed far more rapidly than humanity's spiritual evolution. Dystopian societies are often imagined as police states, with unlimited power over the citizens. The word derives from Ancient Greek: δυσ-, "bad, hard",^[2] and Ancient Greek: τόπος, "place, landscape"^[3]. It can alternatively be called cacotopia,^[4][5] or anti-utopia.

Bosch

Dana Schutz

Dana Schutz

Jeffrey Beebe

Jeffrey Beebe

Julie Mehretu

Sarah Sze

Ken Millington

YOur assignment is to go and gather inspiration/ research from the Natural History Museum. You will chose one object as an inspiration and develop an imaginary world from it. Think of the definitions above as a way of placing your world, think about light, mood, scale, etc. This does not have to be a landscape as the examples above prove.