Artopia
by William Gillespie after Herbert Brün
Finalist: International Utopia Contest, 2001
I am describing a society as a nation-state situated somewhere
within the existing social order, perhaps on a small island. If
those who respond to this proposal suggest that I detach my imagination
from the current reality and design a society, so to speak, as
a world, I will happily consider that.
ART
Original art is neither bought nor sold: it is used as currency. While the
barter system is an acceptable and even preferred means of exchange, when
currency is used, original art is the preferred currency, and is always acceptable.
The exchange value of the work is determined by those making the transaction,
and may include issues of durability, practicality, or beauty. Originality
is considered a virtue of a work of art, but everyone develops personal methods
of assessing the exchange value of a given artwork. The value of art is a
subject on which there is much colorful disagreement. Checks take time to
write or paint. Banks are similar to museums & libraries - all art stored
there may be examined by those who do not own it to prevent a private accumulation
of compositional techniques. Portfolios replace wallets. Panhandlers are
performance artists. Murals and sculpture can be rent.
That originality is prized means that currency is unstable. Any object of perceived
value, if imitated or copied, will depreciate. To a certain extent, artists
may distribute multiple copies of a print, book, or recording, but they will
not be able to escape making something new eventually. Everyone studies artworks
to avoid replication, since fashions depreciate when their style becomes predictable.
Plagiarism is avoided. Censorship is nonexistent. Paintings and sculpture are
not necessarily displayed, as they can decrease in value as they become familiar.
There is no background music. The study of art is a deliberate and consuming
undertaking, people sit still when they listen to music, and do not read with
the radio on.
Media are free and easy to obtain from the public studios. Everyone is encouraged
and enabled to be an artist. Making and studying art in all media is involved
in every year of schooling. Everyone reads. Everyone cooks.
A market is a social event, generally occurring once a week, where all citizens
may interact, and exchange food and art and other commodities.
Currency is used by those who enjoy the market, but is not necessary in order
to live: all basic needs are provided for.
WORK
Everyone works four hours a day, five days a week, so that everyone's basic
needs are met.
This could involve work for any of the branches of the Public Design Office:
the recycling station, the public kitchens, the public gardens, the public
media, public transportation, or hospitals.
Everyone is also self-employed as an artist and as a gardener.
Small plots of land are available for free use, distributed annually by lottery.
There is also a large public farm with a rotating staff, and the food it produces
is distributed to those who do not or cannot produce or obtain their own.
All children take a year away from school in order to work at the recycling
station - work which is considered central to an understanding of the betterment
of society. There is flexibility as to which year they choose.
Citizens interested in pursuing a permanent role in a position requiring extensive
training and practice, such as doctor or technical worker, may apply to do
so.
TECHNOLOGY
Artopia views history as a progression: culturally, ethically, and technologically.
But the progress of history is not a smooth or intentional evolution, it
is filled with false starts, dead ends, as well as very genuine improvements
happening by accident. For example, in North America, a system of roads designed
for the abuse of constant automobile traffic, after the abolition of the
auto, will provide a quite durable network of roadways for bicycles. The
Internet, designed for nuclear war, will survive as a technology whose functions
are devoted to peace. Therefore, environmentally unsound technologies, out
of those ubiquitous today, may not be preserved, but their side-effects may
be incorporated into society.
For this reason, while most scientific or technical research and development
is geared toward research and development along certain applicable lines -
sustainable sources of energy, recycling waste, medicine - scientists also
develop technology or scientific theories with no discernable relevance to
society. Obsolete machinery is used as long as possible.
The aim of civilization is to record its own existence, in all media, and to
try to document all understanding. The pursuit of clarity must be mediated
by the understanding that conflicts of opinion are where knowledge is situated.
The aim of technology is minimal environmental impact and automated maintenance:
machines that can run themselves without injuring the landscape.
The aim of social organization is to foster collaborative work, to encourage
all individuals to fully realize their potential for excellence, while avoiding
the consolidation of power of those with special knowledge.
PERMACULTURE
The preservation of natural systems is imperative.
There are no landfills, only carefully-designed recycling stations. Organic
matter is composted and non-recyclables are reused or stored until a way is
found to reuse them. Minimizing and eliminating waste is as an important to
any industry as production, according to the Zero Emissions methodology:
1. TOTAL THROUGHPUT. A review of the industry identifies opportunities
to minimize inputs and maximize outputs. The target is full use
of inputs; i.e., total throughput. If this cannot be achieved,
the next step of the methodology is applied.
2. OUTPUT-INPUT MODELS. An inventory is made of all "wastes";
i.e., outputs not consumed in the final product or its process
of manufacture. An active search is then initiated to identify
industries which could use the outputs, or modified versions of
them, an inputs.
3. INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS. The Output-Input models are used to determine
potential candidates for clustering. The next step is to identify
optimal clusters in terms of size and number of participating technologies.
4. BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES. In cases where present engineering
know-how, product and process technologies are not yet able to
secure effective and economical coupling of outputs and inputs,
research into breakthrough technologies or system designs is initiated." (Zero
Emissions Research Initiative Website, see notes below)
Architects are trained in permaculture, and work to create dwellings
and cities that are consonant with their surrounding ecology. Their
role is to render their role unnecessary by designing social and
ecological orders that can run themselves.
THE PUBLIC DESIGN OFFICE
Health care, education, transportation, shelter, and food are free. Some forms
of these may also be available through the market. Most citizens will rely
happily upon the health care system, except perhaps in special cases where
medical attention must be sought elsewhere. On the other hand, many citizens
will be able to provide or obtain food for themselves and may choose not
to take advantage of the public food stores.
The Public Design Office's health facet maintains and operates
hospitals, clinics, and medical colleges, while also running a
proactive education campaign whose purpose is to teach healthy
living practices. Medical colleges discriminate between branches
of medicine - allopathic, homeopathic, acupuncture, etc. - but
do not discriminate against any of them for any reason other than
demonstrable efficacy.
Children attend school until the age of 16, but from 16 on people of any age
may take advantage of free classes at a continuous open college from which
nobody ever graduates. Some classes may be necessary as a prerequisite for
certain types of public work. The study of history is called war. Art history
and music history are called history. Anyone may apply to teach a class.
Bicycles and foot travel are the primary means of personal transportation.
An electric trolley system and limited bus service provides public transportation.
All automobiles, being economically and environmentally unsustainable, as well
as rendering society dependent on the global oil market, are public. Most of
these public autos are hybrids that run on electricity and/or organic fuel
("gasohol"). Citizens may request the use of automobiles when needed
(the handicapped, for example. It is legal to own an automobile, driving it
requires a special, temporary permit.
The Public Design Office's nutrition facet maintains, stocks, and staffs public
kitchens where gardeners are invited to drop off surplus, and where citizens
may use the facilities to prepare food. The role of kitchen staff is to ensure
that rules of hygiene and protocol are followed, and to provide special assistance
or recipes when needed. It is common practice to cook for strangers, and to
prepare meals cooperatively.
The Public Design Office also runs the recycling station.
There is no nuclear power or capital punishment.
Major industries above a certain size automatically become a facet of the Public
Design Office, so that the public might have input into their operating methods.
The Public Design Office funds public newspaper, radio, and television, with
the stipulation that reasonable requests for airtime or print space be honored.
The Public Design Office actively solicits input and encourages discussion
of society, actively looking for ways to redesign society to provide greater
benefits to all. There exist numerous live and electronic forums where citizens
can express their wishes, desires, and complaints. Public terminals are available,
and all citizens may request a computer be installed in their home. Major design
decisions are put to a public vote and citizens may vote online or in person.
There are also clowns who frolic in parks or go door to door to interact with
the people and help whenever possible.
Everyone will intern, at some point, in the Public Design Office, to have a
better understanding of the needs of society. The various facets of public
design - recycling, health, transportation, etc. - each have a committee of
elected representatives, and there is a central parliament where representatives
of each committee meet to discuss how interactions between the various facets
might better meet the needs of the people.
With a few exceptions in the case of work requiring special skills, or people
who are uniquely suited for a position, jobs are rotated. There are limits
to how long Public Design Officials may hold office in any one facet.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
In the event that outside resources are needed in order to meet the basic needs
of society, in exchange for needed commodities, Artopia will export books,
recordings, artwork, zero-emissions technologies, and other products chosen
both for their market value as well as their reflection of Artopian values.
To protect against economic exploitation, with the exception of medicine, the
importation of drugs and alcohol is illegal.
The Public Design Office will have an intelligence division whose purpose is
to collect data on the most powerful nations and corporations of the world
and to work against any corrupting or colonial influence they might exert.
CONSTRAINTS
Artopia is not as interested in the liberty of the individual as it is interested
in the potential consequences, positive or negative, of that liberty on others.
Individual liberty does not lead to social liberty, it is the opposite process
that interests us: how liberating the society by satisfying the needs of
its citizens can lead to the liberty of the individual, once everybody's
needs are met.
Every society operates under constraints. Some of these constraints are obeyed
unconsciously as taboos, some are explicit laws, some are accepted as common
sense or courtesy. Artopia believes that progress is made through an awareness
of these constraints - an understanding of how and when we do not think - and
through the conscious and systematic application of new constraints. Only through
bounding movement can significant progress be made, just as a gun constrains
an explosion to focus it in a particular direction. Constraints in art, taught
in art classes, can include writing while excluding a particular letter of
the alphabet (the lipogram), or composing music using each of the twelve notes
in the dodecaphonic scale once (12-tone composition). Constraints in the sciences
(the scientific method, the limitation of the area of study) can lead to new
theories. The effects of the constraints are studied, and constraints can be
altered accordingly. In the arts, where there is little in the way of human
suffering at stake if an experiment (say making a painting without the use
of paint) fails, more unintuitive or outlandish constraints may be tested.
Constraints to Artopian society include "create no waste," "deplete
no natural resource," "resolve conflicts without violence."
Sources:
Albert, Michael, & Robin Hahnel. Looking Forward: Participatory Economics
for the Twenty-First Century. Boston: South End, 1991. <http://www.parecon.org/>
McHarg, Ian L. Design With Nature. Garden City, New York: The Natural History
Press, 1969.
Mollison, Bill. Permaculture: A Designers' Manual. Tyalgum, Australia: Tagari,
1992. Designing With Nature.
Zero Emissions Research Initiative Website <http://www.ias.unu.edu/research_prog/unuzeri/Default.html> |
