Utopian Representations
in 21st Century Mediums
The Modern Utopias of Television and Film
What does the modern Utopian vision look like?
How does it reflect historical Utopian philosophies
while being uniquely a product of the globalized, technologically driven world?
Eureka - A Technological Utopia on SyFy
The Cast of SyFy's original series Eureka.(Figure 16)
The below video shows the type of citizens that Eureka encompasses and the types of technologies experimented with therein. (Video 6)
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Avatar - A Future Utopia in FilmThe above video briefly examines the storyline and characters of
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The most popular film of the twenty first century representing a Utopia is, undoubtedly, Avatar. This hugely successful film attracted wide-ranging audiences due to its innovative 3D and special effects. The film takes place on another planet, Pandora, in the near future--22nd century, and follows the story of two cultures--an indigenous, Utopian society and a violent, dystopian aggressor society-- The native population's--the Navi--practices can easily be viewed as utopian given certain criteria. The Navi are an indigenous, extra-terrestrial population. They live in a balance with nature and other creatures, promoting a harmonized, “back to the land” style way of life. These Navi harmonists are—in keeping with the unique elements of 21st century utopianism—opposed by the U.S. Military, sent to Pandora to initiate extractive resource industries. The military seeks to "force their cooperation," and if that fails "hammer them hard" (Avatar). The opposition of Utopian “back to the land” ethics, and values associated with the natives and the harsh, pragmatic, and dystopian qualities, which the U.S. Military executes, express common 21st century Utopian themes. Unlike its television counterpart, Eureka, Avatar’s utopia is not supported by the U.S. government, but instead, endangered by it. However, this fundamental difference does not change what both of these Utopias represent. |
The Eureka construct places the current government in a patriarchal lordship over the utopian experiment while Avatar’s construction associates the government with the dystopic state of a utopia destroyed. The technological prowess of the antagonistic force in Avatar is typical in many current utopian representations; however, technology is often used by the protagonist societies in these texts as well. While Avatar's indigenous population is unfamiliar with the oppositions advanced technology, they too have an advanced natural energy and technological grid built into their bio-systems.
The privilege of creating future utopian texts is the ability to self-create and speculate on possible advancements. While the Navi's technology is more conducive to a utopian life style, it is not necessarily any less advanced or beneficial than the familiar machine based technology of the military. Technology in twenty first century utopias seems to be an accepted reality. While historic utopias have filled the spectrum (from More’s agrarian, pre-industrial state, to Zamyatin's machine world) today’s utopia’s seek a balance between technological enhancements and active humanoid participation.