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00:07Is it part of the human condition to dream of living in a better world, in a utopia?
00:20Ever since Thomas More coined the term, the idea of utopia has captivated us.
00:27It's been reimagined and reinvented by generations of writers and artists and dreamers,
00:35each interpreting it in their own distinctive ways.
00:39But why has this vision of a place somewhere between fiction and reality exerted such a hold over us?
00:54Utopian dreams have driven popular culture
01:01and high art.
01:05From Swift to Star Trek, Wagner to Wikipedia,
01:13utopias have broadened the horizons of the human imagination,
01:18inspiring extraordinary architecture.
01:21Look at this.
01:40In this program, I'm going to find out how utopias start,
01:45as aspiration,
01:47as blueprints for fairer worlds.
01:51Could you guys come up with some rules about your own perfect world?
01:56I'll explore the values that utopian visions have in common
02:00and whether they can inspire real change.
02:04If you can improve the world for the most marginalized population,
02:09it can get better for all of us.
02:14By finding out what you can do,
02:16it's the only way you can be the best person you can be.
02:19I want to ask what our utopian visions reveal
02:22about humanity's deepest hopes and fears.
02:46Remember this?
02:47It seems like an age ago now, doesn't it?
02:50A kind of warning that the route towards a better world is rarely smooth.
03:01This is our time to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace
03:06and reaffirm that while we breathe, we hope.
03:11And where we are met with cynicism and doubt
03:14and those who tell us that we can't,
03:17we will respond with that timeless creed
03:20that sums up the spirit of a people.
03:29We all want to believe in a better world,
03:32in a utopia.
03:35The big puzzle, of course,
03:37and it's baffled humanity at least since Plato,
03:41is how do we get there?
03:49Let's start with perhaps the most basic utopia of all,
03:54a moment of liberation
03:56from the humdrum of everyday life.
04:06Where better to begin
04:08than at a football match?
04:18Here, tens of thousands of people come together
04:22to share in a common passion and a dream.
04:37If there's one person who understands this utopia,
04:42it's veteran commentator John Motson.
04:46I think for many, many people it was always a release
04:50because when football crowds were huge
04:53just after the Second World War,
04:55many people worked not just Monday to Friday,
04:58but the men would also work Saturday morning.
05:02And when they left their jobs at lunchtime on Saturday,
05:05they would make straight for the football stadium.
05:08And that was their release
05:10at the end of a very gruelling
05:12and maybe boring working week.
05:17There was a utopian feel about it
05:20because this was their moment
05:22when they could let off steam
05:24or cheer or boo
05:26or support their local club.
05:35I love those Lowry paintings
05:37of the football grounds
05:38and everyone processing in
05:40as a direct equivalent of the factory.
05:43And, of course,
05:44going to the match is one of them, isn't it?
05:46It conveys
05:48them descending on a football ground.
05:53The factory worker and the managers
05:56are all in the same place
05:58and they're all cheering for the same thing.
06:00That's right.
06:01And that's quite amazing
06:02in terms of bringing a community back together.
06:05Yeah, and I think that's where
06:06this feeling of belonging
06:11for a football fan
06:12is really essential to why he's going.
06:15because once he gets inside the ground,
06:19he is irrevocably linked
06:20to the performance of those players
06:23and to the brains of that manager.
06:26You know, suddenly they're at one.
06:33They all want success
06:35and if it's failure,
06:38they all go through that as well, together.
06:44Football says something to me
06:46about the resilience of humans
06:49and their ability to keep on hoping
06:52and keep on dreaming.
06:54Absolutely.
06:55Clubs have their good runs
06:56and their bad runs
06:58and the supporters live through the bad runs
07:00hoping that the good run
07:01is going to come very soon.
07:03I always remember reading
07:04Alan Sillito's book
07:06Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
07:08Oh, yeah, wonderful.
07:08And the sort of the anti-hero of that
07:11where he said
07:12this chapter started
07:14he always knew Notts were going to lose
07:16because the guy was Notts County fan
07:19but he was so pessimistic
07:21when he went to the game.
07:23So, I mean, that makes another point.
07:25Football isn't all about, you know,
07:27standing there and yelling.
07:28I mean, there is a sort of a
07:30sentimental, cultural side
07:33to the way people follow the game.
07:39John Motson's right.
07:42Football is about
07:44so much more than football.
07:47I think it speaks to a deeper yearning.
07:54This shared hope for better
07:58week in, week out
08:00come what may
08:02it seems to me that hope
08:04that optimism
08:05is something that runs as a current
08:08all the way through human history.
08:18The kind of hope for better
08:21that we see in football fans
08:23was given philosophical gravitas
08:26by the Tudor polymath
08:28Thomas More.
08:33More set out a blueprint
08:35for a better world.
08:37An imaginary, idealised society
08:40with a name
08:42which started
08:43as a knowing classical joke.
08:47Literally,
08:48in Latinised Greek,
08:51utopia means no place.
08:53It's a place that can't exist
08:56or a place that doesn't make it exist.
08:59But when Thomas More
09:00published a book in 1516
09:02he included a poet
09:04in which he spelt the word differently
09:07utopia
09:08which means a good place.
09:11And it's that inherent ambiguity
09:14that means that utopia
09:17has been contested for centuries.
09:23More's own dream of utopia
09:26was of a faraway land.
09:32His book is presented
09:34as a mariner's tale.
09:36It was written
09:37in an era of feverish excitement
09:39as a new
09:41and perhaps better world
09:43was being charted
09:44across the seas.
09:53In Bristol
09:54tourists take a spin
09:55in a replica of the Matthew
09:58the small ship
09:59in which John Cabot
10:01sailed across the Atlantic
10:02in 1497
10:05and reached North America.
10:16During the age of exploration
10:18there were ships like this
10:19travelling all over the world
10:21packed with hardy souls
10:24desperate to find new knowledge
10:26new understanding
10:27who knows
10:29new lands.
10:31To me
10:32the sea was like the internet
10:33the internet of its age
10:35little packets of information
10:37travelling backwards and forwards
10:40crisscrossing the globe
10:41and those sailors
10:44who were coming into ports
10:45were coming with pretty tall tales
10:48of lands far away
10:50that were verging on perfect.
10:52the promise of a utopia
10:55of a better place
10:57of a good place
10:58always seemed to be
11:00just over the horizon.
11:10Thomas More's utopia
11:13was partly inspired
11:14by Amerigo Vespucci's reports
11:17of his encounters
11:18with the natives
11:18of South America
11:20innocent
11:21and uncorrupted
11:22by the European
11:23love of gold.
11:27The natives of More's utopia
11:30have democracy
11:31religious tolerance
11:33and no private property.
11:37What's fascinating
11:39I think
11:39is that More puts forward
11:41a version of communism
11:43several centuries
11:44before Marx and Lenin.
11:47He writes
11:48Nobody owns anything
11:50but everyone is rich
11:52for what greater wealth
11:54can there be
11:55than cheerfulness
11:56peace of mind
11:57and freedom from anxiety?
12:04It's a very romantic idea
12:06that back in the golden age
12:07of exploration
12:08people weren't just looking
12:10for trade routes
12:11and new resources
12:12but they were also
12:13looking for the answers
12:15to kind of all the big questions
12:17in life
12:17and therefore to utopia
12:22there's amazing
12:24stories and tales
12:26about people searching
12:27for Shangri-La
12:28and Eden
12:29and
12:30I think today
12:32we're still the same
12:34we might
12:35we might have mapped
12:36the planet
12:36but
12:37there's still so much
12:38to see and experience
12:39for ourselves.
12:42Explorer Belinda Kirk
12:44has trapped camels
12:46through China's
12:47desert of death
12:50uncovered ancient
12:51rock paintings
12:52in Lesotho
12:55and rode
12:56unsupported
12:57right around Britain.
13:01She believes
13:02that seeking out
13:03new and better worlds
13:05is more than just
13:06a choice
13:07it's an innate
13:08urge.
13:11There's a lot of studies
13:12about the
13:13Explora gene
13:14which has been
13:14identified as
13:157R
13:16which is also known
13:17as a wanderlust gene
13:18so this idea
13:20that a fifth
13:22of the population
13:23have this
13:26real
13:26strong feeling
13:28to explore
13:30now that exploration
13:31might be
13:34physically
13:34looking for new lands
13:36or it might be
13:37that they are
13:38our philosophers
13:40you know
13:41they have got
13:42new ideas
13:42and they're the people
13:43who break those boundaries.
13:45Do you think
13:46that there's
13:46you know
13:47something
13:48utopian
13:49inherently
13:50about all
13:51exploration?
13:53I think it's
13:54the characteristic
13:55that is
13:56largely
13:57is the reason
13:59for our
14:00development
14:01and evolution
14:02the groups
14:04that are
14:04innovative
14:05that are
14:06exploring
14:07they're going to
14:08come up with
14:09the solutions
14:10and I think
14:11that's what you need
14:12isn't it
14:12for any utopia
14:14you need
14:14progress
14:15and people
14:16being engaged
14:17people being
14:18excited
14:19there's that
14:20hope
14:20that this
14:22could be the
14:22trip
14:23that is
14:24really
14:24enriching
14:28is that
14:29what keeps
14:29you going
14:30back
14:31I think
14:32at the
14:32time
14:32you don't
14:33always
14:33think
14:34that
14:35there's
14:36a lot
14:36of
14:36type
14:37two
14:37fun
14:37in
14:38exploration
14:39don't know
14:40if you've
14:40heard of
14:40that
14:41no
14:41what's
14:42type
14:42one
14:42so
14:43type
14:43one
14:43is
14:44fun
14:44at the
14:44time
14:44and
14:45fun
14:45afterwards
14:45type
14:46two
14:46is
14:47not
14:47fun
14:47at the
14:48time
14:48but
14:48fun
14:49afterwards
14:49and
14:50type
14:50three
14:51is
14:51not
14:51fun
14:52at
14:52any
14:52time
14:54so a lot
14:55of what
14:55happens
14:56on
14:56expeditions
14:57is
14:58you
14:58suffer
14:59a bit
15:00but you
15:01learn
15:01that
15:02through
15:02suffering
15:03you can
15:03achieve
15:04things
15:04that you
15:05wouldn't
15:05otherwise
15:05achieve
15:06and then
15:07I think
15:07you take
15:07that into
15:08the rest
15:08of your
15:08life
15:09it does
15:09sound a
15:10little bit
15:10utopian
15:11this idea
15:12that you
15:12can
15:13discover
15:14a better
15:14place
15:15that doesn't
15:15have to
15:16be
15:16an actual
15:18place
15:18it can
15:19be a
15:20better
15:20place
15:21for yourself
15:21by
15:22finding
15:22out
15:23what
15:23you
15:23can
15:23do
15:23it's
15:24the
15:24only
15:25way
15:25you
15:25can
15:25be
15:25the
15:25best
15:25person
15:26you
15:26can
15:26be
15:32perhaps
15:33we
15:33don't
15:33all
15:34have
15:34the
15:34explorer
15:35gene
15:36but that
15:37doesn't
15:37mean
15:37we
15:38can't
15:38go
15:38on
15:38a
15:39voyage
15:39to
15:39discover
15:40utopia
15:41vicariously
15:43the
15:43exploits
15:44of the
15:44age
15:45of
15:45exploration
15:46spurred
15:47writers
15:47to
15:47imagine
15:48new
15:49and
15:50ever
15:50more
15:50exotic
15:51worlds
15:56one
15:5718th
15:57century
15:58author's
15:59story
15:59of an
16:00explorer
16:01enduring
16:01a lot
16:02of
16:02type
16:03two
16:03fun
16:04has
16:05become
16:05one
16:05of the
16:05most
16:06influential
16:06works
16:07of
16:07literature
16:08ever
16:08written
16:09and it
16:10would
16:10ultimately
16:11inspire
16:12utopian
16:13change
16:13in the
16:14real
16:15world
16:19i
16:20slept
16:21sounder
16:22than i
16:23ever
16:24remember
16:24having
16:25done
16:25in my
16:25life
16:26for
16:27when i
16:28awakened
16:28it was
16:29just
16:29daylight
16:30i
16:32attempted
16:33to rise
16:34but i
16:35wasn't
16:35able
16:35to
16:35stir
16:36i
16:37found
16:37that
16:37my
16:37arms
16:38and my
16:39legs
16:40were
16:40strongly
16:41fastened
16:42on each
16:42side
16:43to the
16:43ground
16:43in a
16:45little
16:45time
16:45i felt
16:46something
16:47alive
16:48moving
16:49on my
16:50left
16:51leg
16:53bending
16:54my
16:54eyes
16:54downwards
16:55i perceived
16:56there to
16:57be a
16:57human
16:58creature
16:58not
16:58six
16:59inches
17:00tall
17:01in the
17:02meantime
17:03i felt
17:03at least
17:04forty
17:05more
17:06of the
17:06same
17:07kind
17:07following
17:08the
17:08first
17:09i was
17:11in the
17:11utmost
17:12astonishment
17:13and i
17:14roared
17:15loud
17:18and
17:19then
17:19they
17:20all
17:20ran
17:21away
17:22in
17:22frights
17:26where
17:27were
17:27we
17:29exactly
17:30what's
17:31the
17:31special
17:32thing
17:32about
17:32lilliput
17:33yep
17:38at seven
17:40stories
17:41the
17:41national
17:42center
17:42for
17:42children's
17:43literature
17:43in
17:44new
17:44castle
17:44a
17:45little
17:45utopia
17:46in
17:46itself
17:46matthew
17:48grenby
17:48is running
17:48a
17:49workshop
17:49for
17:50local
17:50school
17:50children
17:51exploring
17:52jonathan
17:53swift's
17:53work
17:54and our
17:55love
17:55of
17:55fantastical
17:56worlds
17:58can you think
17:59of any
17:59books that
18:00you've
18:00read
18:00where there
18:01are other
18:01made-up
18:02lands
18:02oh harry potter
18:04interesting
18:04hogwarts
18:06that doesn't
18:06exist
18:07no
18:07you sure
18:08yeah
18:09anywhere else
18:10alice in wonderland
18:12so wonderland
18:12that doesn't
18:13exist
18:13either
18:13one thing
18:14that we
18:14thought
18:15we'd
18:15ask
18:15you to
18:15do
18:16is
18:17make up
18:17a place
18:18which is
18:18different
18:19from your
18:19normal life
18:20and i'm just
18:20interested to see
18:21how it would
18:22actually look
18:28so it's always sunny
18:29in this world is it
18:30yeah
18:31uh-huh
18:32that's what makes
18:33the trees grow so well
18:34yeah
18:35turns them happy
18:36there's no cars
18:37you just gotta walk
18:38everywhere
18:39uh-huh
18:40what's this here
18:41it's a town
18:42it's a town
18:42on a flower
18:43a town
18:44on a flower
18:45wow
18:46so all the celebrities
18:47live on the petals
18:49right and who lives in the middle
18:51just normal people
18:52so is it better to be a celebrity
18:54or a normal person
18:58while thomas moore wrote utopia for a narrow audience the erudite tudor ruling class
19:05what made gulliver's travel so enduring is that swift aimed it at a much broader readership
19:13empowering them to dream
19:19he is doing something really remarkable with it
19:22he is making it a much more approachable kind of utopia than there has been before
19:27he's putting in these little people the lilliputians he's putting the big people
19:32all of the strange fantasy inventions which give it a new kind of life i think and make
19:37it available for a much bigger audience so as soon as gulliver's travels comes out
19:42everybody's reading it whether they're aristocrats at court or we're told children in schools
19:49it's obviously written by a man who has an agenda
19:52what are his politics
19:55by the stage swift has been on a bit of a political journey
19:59and he's now a tory not in the modern sense of tory maybe he's someone who has a real sympathy
20:06for those who are left out of power
20:08to me it's a defining element of utopian fiction that it has an agenda
20:16jonathan swift made his principles clear in the prefaced his story where he claimed that
20:22the bulk of the people were forced to live miserably by labouring every day for small wages
20:28to make a few live plentifully
20:32in utopias there are often a lot of rules to make sure that everybody behaves in in the right way
20:39so
20:39that the whole society functions really well so could you guys come up with some rules about your own perfect
20:45worlds
20:48with his idea of escaping into extraordinary worlds jonathan swift arguably invented children's literature
20:57and just as importantly he put utopian dreams into the heart of it
21:06some of the very first children's books that are published in the 1740s and the 1750s
21:12so just a couple of decades after gulliver's travels they pick up on this idea of big and small which
21:18is embodied in the word lilliput
21:20and you have the lilliputian magazine the first magazine written for children 1751 to 52 which has taken that word
21:28from swift
21:28it's a really interesting publication it has poetry in it it has riddles it has all sorts of miscellaneous contents
21:37including and this is what i find so fascinating three or four utopian stories little travel narratives
21:45which are rather like what's happened in gulliver's travels and which are going to take these young readers
21:51to some really extraordinary places governed by extraordinary rules in your perfect world are there
21:57any rules that people have to obey yeah um don't argue discuss and if you're sad be happy what about
22:06this one i can see that no one's allowed not to like football yeah if anyone tries to be more
22:15important
22:16than other people they they're not allowed to be more important everyone's equal
22:22the lilliputian magazine's utopian stories are each about how a child takes over an island kingdom
22:29and rules it according to their own edicts to make it a better place
22:37one of them was the history of the macaulians about a little boy who manages to save a corrupt society
22:45by leading his people to a new island and putting in his own rules to make it a much more
22:51virtuous country
22:53and the remarkable thing about that is that in this new country there's a radical redistribution of property
23:00all inhabitants every four years are to bring their money into the public treasury
23:06from which an equal distribution was made again
23:12that sounds a bit like some of your ideas about everybody being equal don't you think
23:20yeah
23:22stories like this in the lilliputian magazine had real impact
23:27seeding revolutionary ideas among a new generation of thinkers
23:33living at a time of intellectual and political ferment
23:37in the late 18th century the shock of the french revolution reverberated through britain's stratified society
23:49this was a time when industrialization was creating dark satanic mills
23:54and william blake dreamed of a spiritual utopia
23:58a jerusalem in england's green and pleasant land
24:05one young reader of the lilliputian magazine perhaps more influenced by its writings than any other
24:12was thomas spence
24:13this radical political firebrand was born into a poor family in newcastle
24:20he had 18 brothers and sisters
24:22and he actually lifted whole sections of the lilliputian magazine
24:28and used them directly in his own radical political writings
24:33for spence the route to utopia on earth
24:38lay perhaps unsurprisingly for a kid from such a big family
24:43in gathering resources and sharing them
24:47for him it was all about commonsing
24:54the concept of the commons the ideal of shared ownership by a community
25:00is i think a vital but often overlooked strand of utopian thought
25:07we take it for granted today
25:09but common land like much public space
25:13has had to be fought for tooth and nail
25:21this is newcastle's town more
25:24one thousand acres of rural space
25:27slam in the middle of urban newcastle
25:32it might look peaceful nowadays
25:34but in 1771
25:37this was the battleground
25:39that fired thomas spence's utopian politics
25:44when landowners threatened to enclose the moor
25:47spence rallied the local freemen
25:49to campaign for common ownership of the land
25:57the freemen wish to see the people of newcastle
26:01enjoy soul and several grazing rights in perpetuity
26:05by able to lead their animals up the hill
26:09and onto the moor for the summer season
26:13spence clearly did ignite the debate
26:16was provocative
26:17and he did generate the thinking behind a common
26:22and they actually succeeded
26:24it took a week in parliament
26:26and they came back with the town more act 1774
26:31uh... they were hailed as heroes
26:34um... and uh... it's led to where we are today
26:38but today
26:39but today a quarter of a millennium later
26:41and there are still cows
26:43being grazed on the moor by freemen
26:47i mean that's quite a victory
26:49it's it's tremendous
26:51but it it is part of the culture in this city
26:54uh... the town more is the prized access
26:58it it's the city loan
27:04after helping to create a little utopia in newcastle
27:08spence scaled up his campaign
27:11thumbing his nose at the grandest landowner in britain
27:15his majesty king george the third himself
27:19hark how the trumpet sound proclaims the land around
27:32the jubilee
27:42tell of the poor oppressed
27:47no more they shall be cest
27:56no more they shall be cest
27:58no land rules more more less
28:04their property
28:08property
28:15that's thomas spence's alternative national anthem
28:19in his championing of the poor
28:22spence dreamed of commencing not just land
28:25but education and money
28:30this is a really really important historical object
28:381797 cartwheel penny
28:40and with this object
28:42spence saw an incredible opportunity to get his message
28:47his utopian vision
28:49out to the masses
28:51200 million of these were issued
28:55in the 1790s by the crown
28:58first time britons owned an identical image of britannia
29:03and of course of king george
29:06so what spence did was he took them
29:09and he counter stamped them with his message
29:16it read
29:17no landlords you fools
29:20spencer's plan forever
29:24he sent thousands of these coins back into circulation
29:31his plan was utterly visionary
29:35and for having it conceiving of it
29:39he found himself repeatedly in prison
29:42and repeatedly he defended the principles he dedicated his life to
29:50the king thought he'd issued a propagandist message to the people
29:55spence took it and issued a utopian vision to the people
30:09thomas spence died in 1814 in the same poverty into which he'd been born
30:17if he was alive today i like to imagine that he'd be a digital rights campaigner
30:24because in cyberspace his idea of the commons remains a powerful if contested concept
30:34here the commons is no longer about shared land of course
30:37but about shared ideas
30:42i'm going to try to explain how it is
30:44that the internet takes thomas spence's thinking about the commons
30:49in the words of george bernish shaw
30:53that great irish playwright
30:56you can think of it like this
30:59if i've got an apple and you've got an apple
31:02and we exchange our apples
31:05we both end up with one apple
31:09but if i have an idea and you have an idea and we exchange ideas
31:14we both end up with two ideas
31:22the concept of a commons of ideas and knowledge on the internet is championed today by wikipedia
31:34in berlin hundreds of wikipedia editors from across the world are holding a convention
31:42i think of this as a kind of u.n of knowledge
31:46they're sharing ideas and bravely fighting for free speech in their time
31:51just as spence did in his
31:56i think my contribution to wikipedia is a way to disseminate more freedom and democracy
32:02for more people in my country and in the world maybe
32:05we share the same beliefs we share the same goals
32:10if i would describe it in words
32:12it's like a second love
32:15it's really just thousands of people trying to get things right
32:20so that what's being presented on wikipedia is the truth
32:28the crowd made online encyclopedia is nothing if not ambitious in its utopian dream
32:35for every human to freely share in the sum of all knowledge
32:42with 18 billion visits every month
32:4540 million articles
32:47in almost 300 languages
32:51and around 120 000 regular volunteer editors
32:57wikipedia is arguably one of humanity's greatest collective efforts
33:05so are you ready to edit
33:07i'm ready
33:08you're ready
33:09so you're going to click the edit
33:12executive director of the wikimedia foundation
33:15katherine marr is helping me to become a wikipedian
33:21i'm going to go for something i know a bit about
33:24the french revolution
33:28i was hoping there might be missing references
33:31but i'm seeing
33:32there are some missing references in this section
33:35that looks like something that we could do
33:38i want a mission impossible music
33:43oh what have i done i've made a shambles of this
33:46i really haven't made a shambles of this
33:50you see
33:50we'll be able to understand
33:52there's an important lesson here which is concentrate
33:56here we have a commons
33:58but is this commons of virtual utopia
34:01is it really as smooth running democratic and idealistic as it appears to be
34:09in practice it would seem impossible for such a model to work
34:14you could ask people to write some sort of common sense of knowledge
34:18come to consensus on difficult issues
34:21and that anybody could edit it right
34:24and that wouldn't fall prey to sort of vandalism or other problems
34:28but the reality is that wikipedia works and it works remarkably well
34:32and it works in 300 different languages
34:35with all of these people from all over the globe
34:37so i think there is something in there that is about
34:41sort of an optimism and a generosity of spirit
34:44that speaks to our better nature
34:45are there any topics that you could imagine that would not be worthy of coverage
34:52oh wikipedians decide that sort of thing every single day
34:56wikipedians determine what's notable and what's not
34:59and it's not necessarily the same thing as what's famous and what's not
35:03you can have notable things in wikipedia that no one
35:06that only five people have ever heard of
35:09but it's important in some way to human knowledge
35:12and then you could have things that are essentially ephemera
35:15that are here today and gone tomorrow
35:17is that in any way pointing towards the tension within the organization
35:23between those who want to include more
35:25yes we actually call them inclusionists and deletionists
35:29and there is a strong tendency
35:32most wikipedians have a tendency one way or another
35:34i'm an inclusionist i believe that the more things that we have that are available
35:39for people to learn from the more we represent sort of the truth of the world around us
35:43i can kind of imagine wikipedia as being a utopian community
35:50which is to say it has no physical place
35:54but it's definitely part of a drive to make the world better
35:59i think there's a utopian aspect to what we believe
36:02that free knowledge should be available for all
36:06that everyone should be able to participate in it not just consume it
36:10and that we should reach every single person on the planet
36:15what really strikes me about katherine marr's vision for wikipedia
36:19is the notion of equal access and equal rights for everyone on the planet
36:29in other words equality
36:33alongside the commons the ideal of equality is a vital pillar of much utopian thinking
36:44people often assume that equality is something humanity has come up with rather recently
36:50but in fact the struggle for equality takes us deeper still into utopian dreams
37:03let us make this conference the beginning of a stage in our quest for making democracy the thing it should
37:11be
37:12and should have been 200 years ago
37:15this is the time that we will make women and men share equally
37:20thank you very very much
37:26imagined worlds where different peoples and sexes enjoy equal rights
37:37in 1405 a century before thomas more and more than 500 years before germaine grier's the female eunuch
37:47christine de pisau wrote the book of the city of ladies
37:53the pizan extolled women's accomplishments
37:56her allegorical city is a refuge from patriarchy and male dominance
38:02populated she writes by
38:05all women who have loved and do love and will love virtue and morality
38:19from the city of ladies to the city of angels
38:23in los angeles the home of hollywood's dream factory
38:27which has pushed out countless visions of alternative better worlds
38:32there's a project that fits squarely into the feminist utopian tradition
38:41this is a rehearsal of a play that continues the fight for gender equality
38:46by exploring how pregnant women are marginalized
38:58the bumps is a play that's written specifically for a cast of three pregnant actors
39:05at three different stages of pregnancy
39:09the piece is a way to create a small economy for pregnant performers
39:14in the absence of one
39:16it felt really good for me
39:18it's very moving to watch you guys work together because i feel like
39:22playwright rachel cowden nail buff's avant-garde play
39:26is about more than giving an opportunity to pregnant actors
39:30it's also a provocative feminist critique of why that opportunity doesn't usually exist
39:38the hope is that
39:40watching pregnant actors on stage makes everyone start to wonder
39:45why have i never seen this before
39:48and not just in the theatre but what else is broken about our current world that
39:54i'm now suddenly realizing is broken because i've just assumed that
39:59pregnant women are invisible and don't participate in society
40:06almost everything i know i've taught myself
40:10yeah discover it
40:11how to walk down the street
40:16how to bleed
40:19there's a bell hooks quote that i really love which is that um
40:24art
40:24should do more than show us the world as is
40:27it should show us what the world could be
40:30and so something that i really love about utopian art
40:35is that it acknowledges the reality
40:39you know it's not dreamy la la oblivious to what's going on
40:44because by creating a solution
40:47um
40:48or an experimental solution
40:50you're also reflecting on something you're dissatisfied with
41:00i just want someone in my life
41:05you know
41:08and this feels so different from needing
41:12why do you think there's a really urgent need
41:16to be thinking about talking about feminist utopias now
41:21the feminist approach to utopia is really crucial because what it does is
41:26it rejects the idea that utopia is the product of one man's genius
41:34or anybody's genius
41:37and that actually utopia requires a multiplicity of minds
41:44and the theater to me is the natural place to explore utopian thinking in a feminist way
41:51because it's so collaborative
41:53let's play through again and um what if you use more space within the space
41:58and you can also allow yourself
42:01it's about realizing the patriarchy is limiting for all of us
42:07it traps everyone and that if you have fair pay if you have affordable childcare if you have sane labor
42:17practices
42:17these are things that make the world a better place for everybody
42:23if you can improve the world for the most marginalized population
42:29it's a key to how it can get better
42:32for all of us
42:36the more i explore it the more i'm struck by how destructive utopian art like the bumps can be
42:44helping us re-engage with the problems of the real world
42:48giving us a glimpse of a way towards a better future
42:57this has never been more so than in the 1960s
43:02a time of utopian optimism
43:04perhaps like no other
43:08alongside experiments with values
43:10and chemical stimulants
43:13the 1960s was also the moment
43:17when explorers started to look for utopia
43:20not on the other side of the world
43:22but in space
43:26hey
43:29mr. spaceman
43:31won't you please take me along
43:34i won't do anything wrong
43:37hey
43:38the exploration of space is one of the great adventures of all time
43:43we choose to go to the moon
43:45we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things
43:51not because they are easy but because they are hard
43:59space exploration
44:01launched a new wave of utopian storytelling
44:05nowhere more powerfully than via the new medium of television
44:11setting their stories in space
44:13television writers could smuggle daring and subversive futures under the radar
44:19and see them broadcast into millions of living rooms
44:24one series in particular was hugely influential in tackling the issue of racial equality
44:43this one i like the most
44:46they caught the essence of who i am in this picture
44:53lieutenant uhura
44:55these are original publicity shots
44:59yes
45:00michelle nichols played lieutenant uhura in star trek
45:04her role on the bridge of the uss enterprise
45:08inherently utopian
45:10as she sought to communicate in hundreds of alien languages
45:16a signal captain
45:19it's very weak it's ballak
45:22it's a distress signal to the phasarius
45:24we might smile today at the cardboard set and primitive special effects
45:30but in star trek we see a coming together of so many utopian elements
45:35any reply
45:36negative signal is growing weak
45:40sir i doubt if the mothership could have heard it
45:43what's intriguing is that it's an escapist entertainment
45:47like gulliver's travels
45:50there's a crew in which men and women are equal
45:52and they strive for peace in a galactic commons
45:57this is the captain speaking
45:59first federation vessel is in distress
46:02we're preparing to board it
46:03there are lives at stake
46:05by our standards alien life
46:09but lives nevertheless
46:10captain i
46:12this was also an imagined utopia
46:14that set out to change reality
46:18star trek's creator gene roddenberry
46:21was making a statement on the struggle for civil rights in america
46:26by writing a black officer onto the bridge of the enterprise
46:33he was one of the most brilliant men on the planet
46:37and if somebody came up and said that doesn't make sense
46:43he'd hold a conference with them
46:46and he said that comes from your limited point of view
46:53i'm talking about the big picture
46:58what are his ideals like?
47:00in a word we are one
47:03your performances are so strong partly because you really feel the message
47:08exactly
47:08Gene Roddenberry's sharing
47:11absolutely
47:11because we were doing something that we really believed in
47:18and you had something
47:21to hold onto to
47:23to hold up
47:25this is where i'm coming from
47:30in an episode called plato's stepchildren
47:34the series boldly went where american television had so far feared to go
47:39with the first interracial kiss on screen
47:47i'm so frightened captain
47:50i'm so very frightened
47:52that's the way they want you to feel
47:55makes them think that they're alive
47:58kirk and uhura's dialogue ostensibly about telekinetic aliens
48:03can be interpreted as a commentary on white supremacists
48:17kirk as i recall
48:20he's like you know
48:23like this
48:24and he said
48:25i told you i'd get you sooner or later
48:32did you realize when you shot that kiss
48:35how long it will be remembered for
48:38this enormously important historical tv kit
48:42oh yes
48:43yes
48:44yes
48:45an interracial
48:47and they said when the kiss went on
48:53you know this was an interracial thing
48:56and i simply said
48:59yeah
49:00because that's what my whole family is
49:03they wrote my life
49:08michelle considered quitting the show early on
49:11because she worried a hurrah didn't have enough to do
49:14but she was convinced to continue by dr martin luther king
49:19who saw the significance of a black female role model
49:23being beamed into american living rooms
49:28i have a dream
49:30that one day on the red hills of georgia
49:36sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners
49:42will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood
49:47i have a dream
49:52do i gather that you recognize me
49:54i recognize what you appear to be
49:58martin luther king's utopian dream shines through a star trek episode in which the crew beam abraham lincoln onto the
50:06ship
50:07and there's a telling exchange with the hurrah
50:12excuse me captain kirk
50:14yes sir
50:15mr scott
50:17what a charming negress
50:20oh
50:21forgive me my dear
50:23i know that in my time some use that term
50:26as a description of property
50:28but why should i object to that term sir
50:32you see in our century
50:34we've learned not to fear words
50:38may i present our communications officer lieutenant uhura
50:42the foolishness of my century
50:45had me apologizing where no offense was given
50:47we've each learned to be delighted with what we are
50:51dr king
50:53was a man who preached that we should not see differences between races
51:00that's right
51:00and that we should love one another
51:03yes
51:04do you feel that dr king's message was really quite like star trek's message
51:10yes very much
51:13that's why he was a trekker
51:18he rose you know and he made no bones about it
51:22he was so pleased
51:24that we were
51:26getting what he meant
51:31utopian visions like star trek
51:34act as a beacon
51:36they're crucial in criticizing the present
51:38so as to mark the way towards a better future
51:42but there's a flip side to utopian thinking
51:47dystopia
51:49dystopian literature
51:51reminds us that hard-won gains can be lost
51:54dreams like equality and shared ownership can go out of the window
52:01dystopias warn us
52:02we must beware
52:04humanity's darker authoritarian side
52:07if we're ever to reach a better place
52:17just outside vilnius in lithuania i'm being interrogated by the kgb in an immersive and very disorientating theatre experience
52:30they call it 1984 the survival drama after george orwell's classic dystopian novel about the big brother state
52:42this three hour performance set 20 feet underground in a disused nuclear bunker distills the soviet experience into a grim
52:53unremitting dystopia
53:06the creators for whom the soviet experiences recent memory believe you can't just read about dystopia you have to feel
53:16it
53:18why do you put people through this
53:21just to make people understand how living in soviet union was like
53:27this experience working here is very important for me because i love free lithuania i love freedom and i want
53:35to show our society that freedom is much more better than than totalitarian system
53:49always bleak vision of life under a totalitarian state still a bestseller today
53:57is a recurring metaphor the book even has a cameo as a prop or rather a blunt weapon
54:09you imagine george orwell might have approved as his sinister interrogator o'brien warns hero winston smith
54:18if you want a picture of the future imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever
54:28astonishingly it's popular with tourists and school parties who play the role of participant and victim
54:38we have a lot of students from schools so we call it live history lesson
54:43so three hours they are here just facing the soviet union the discipline there and all the reality
54:53so how do the school kids respond i mean it's quite an immersive a very immersive and quite a daunting
55:01experience
55:03um so usually you know they come here and they are thinking that this is a game you know
55:09like guys who are 17 16 years old they are coming here and just behaving like what what what can
55:18you do for me you know
55:19so it takes about 10 minutes
55:23and we've we've got the silence there you know and they are kind of scared
55:32perhaps they walk out realizing quite how lucky they are to have been born when they were born
55:38yes yes they they go out usually through this door and and they're shouting freedom you know
55:46and just like going out of the jail
55:48spread your hands
55:52spread your fingers
55:55hold your eyes
55:56it might seem extreme but the 1984 experience is hardly outlandish in our culture
56:10where georgia were led others have followed
56:15in the 18th century young people read the utopian stories of the lutherputian magazine
56:22now it's dystopian comics that help them understand their world
56:32the 1990s cult marvel series transmetropolitan is a classic example
56:39it imagined a near future of information overload in which truth is lost in a morally bankrupt society
56:47binging on a diet of sex and violence
56:54transmetropolitan the whole hook was when truth is lies
56:58who do you look to to bring you what's actually happening
57:03who's your guide through that world a journalist
57:07transmetropolitans author warren ellis
57:09is one of britain's most prolific comic book and sci-fi writers
57:14the hymn the warning about a dark authoritarian future is about helping his generally young readership
57:22to navigate issues of politics and control
57:28reading dystopic fiction in comics can give kids tools to
57:34understand how the way the world is run and letting them know that they're not alone
57:40in their lack of understanding and general horror at the way the world is
57:44so there's this one passage
57:46that i just think is really staggeringly prescient
57:50so he's broadcasting to the city
57:52so your boss does what he likes
57:54the papers and feed sites that lie to you for the hell of it
58:00they do what they like
58:01and what do you do?
58:03you pay them
58:04you must like it when people in authority they never earned
58:10lie to you
58:11these things are always true
58:13in dystopian fiction
58:16unearned privilege
58:17one of the many little shocks that
58:20Winston Smith gets in 1984
58:22is discovering that O'Brien can turn off the telly screens
58:27sudden unearned secret privilege
58:32the 0.1% were present in 1984 just as they're present today
58:38you see i was wondering about this work in relation to 1984
58:42of a world where the truth gets lost
58:45and you don't bother to question it or challenge it
58:48this is why 1984 was such an important book
58:52because it was only two steps away from life at the time
58:56you know it was Anthony Burgess who actually
58:59actually