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The Utopia Project > Interactive video & smartphone project for the 'Utopia Month', 

Flux Factory Contemporary Art Center, New York City.

 

Selected video's for the project 'Perception', in cooperation with a New York high school.

Project info

 

What does a Utopian society look like? Is it an impossible reality? A daydream? An achievable reality? Or a matter of personal perception? The challenge to work with these questions and concepts came from the exhibition center for contemporary art 'Flux Factory' in New York City. 

For this project, Maureen Bachaus decided to let go of the countless pre-existing theories and explore whether or not it is possible to build a new and virtual Utopia, based on the personal perception of people from different cultures with different backgrounds. This new Utopia currently has two pillars: A reconstructed visual environment and a number of crucial life lessons.

 

part 1 > 'Perception' - interactive video & mobile phone project

Ever heard of the 'disruption'-theory? This theory assumes that you can come to completely new ideas if you approach a subject in a totally different way: upside down, as it were. For this video project people from all around the world and students of a New York High School were asked to respond to the following question: film a subject with your mobile phone for 15 seconds, capturing something in your environment / your own country that you sincerely find ugly. Or something you feel socially or politically should be different and changed.
The videos have been literally turned upside down and combined with other videos. By looking at a subject upside down, new insights and ideas can arise, as well as a possibility to deal with a problem or issue from a totally different angle. The entire project is published on: www.bachaus.wix.com/utopia

 

part 2 > 'Life lessons' - interactive video project

This video project is part of the 'one-question' videoseries, consisting of short interviews in which people from different backgrounds and cultures respond to the same question. In this case: what is your most important life lesson? Say you could carry a life lesson to a totally new and blank world, what would it be? The entire project is published on: www.bachaus.wix.com/utopia

 

 

Participants of the Utopia video's: Benoit Piret (Belgium), Elina Mukhina (Russia), Heleen Huberts (Netherlands), Jeroen Huisman (Netherlands), Jeton Muja (Kosovo), Joris van der Vleuten (Netherlands), Karin Winkelmolen (Belgium), Nino Lomadze (Georgia), Steven Verstuyft (Belgium), Tatiana Fiodorova (Republic of Moldova), Maurizio Frigerio (Italy), Flordeliz Layug Canlas (Italy), Morgan Tucker (Netherlands), Piotr Zoladz (Poland), Bojana Janeva Semova (Macedonia), Marielle Mertens (Netherlands), Shivkumar K V (India), David Borawski (US), Michael C. Gutierrez (New Mexico), Gert Scheerlinck (Belgium), Agnieszka Golaszewska (Poland), Bob Polak (Netherlands), Paulo Jesus (Portugal), Stephan Groß (Germany), Derya Erdem (Turkey), Amanda Rice (Ireland), Toshiki Yashiro (USA/Japan), Beatriz Albuquerque (Portugal), Eduardo Alonso (Spain), Flako Rojas (Venezuela/Belgium), Katy Unger (US), Matt DeFord (USA), Lucie Kordacova (Czech Republic/United Kingdom), Roberta Orlando (Italy), Kyle Alden Martens (Canada), Alan Dunn (United Kingdom), Maximilian Schranner (Germany), Little Shiva (Belgium), Ajsha Reid (USA), Jean Paul (Netherlands), Paul Elie (Kongo/Belgium), Luc (Belgium), Bojana (Macedonia), Suzanne (Netherlands).

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