Unlearning Dystopia: Queer Utopias

Unlearning Dystopia: Queer Utopias

14 April 2018

Art in General, Brooklyn, USA | Website

Unlearning Dystopia is a public program series elaborating on the utopian ideals present in Art in General’s New Commission by Zach Blas: Contra-Internet . The publication Shifter invites the artist and special guests to present three participatory workshops that explore ideas of ecotopias, black utopias, and queer utopias.

Unlearning Dystopia is the second installment of Learning and Unlearning, an experimental discussion series organized by Shifter. Shifter’s aim is to use shared gatherings to unlearn the assumptions and prejudices we hold about each other. In Unlearning Dystopia, we will focus on how we can unlearn the projected dystopias associated with ecology, blackness and queerness, and ask what possible futures can emerge through this process of unlearning. The series will unfold as three events that think beyond the academic lecture or seminar as a format.

Artists facilitate each event, featuring: Terike Haapoja on Ecotopias, Steffani Jemison on Black Utopias, and Zach Blas on Queer Utopias. The organizers Rit Premnath and Avi Alpert will guide us to ask, what other possible futures might emerge merely by unlearning dystopia?