Top Pick
25 Jan to 4 Dec 2016
Somerset House skies
Utopian Flag
Don’t miss the Utopian Flag flying above the South Wing of Somerset House designed by Jeremy Deller and Fraser Muggeridge studio to launch the Utopia 2016 season.
Showing 18 events of 18.
Top Pick
25 Jan to 31 Dec 2016
Great Arch Hall, Somerset House
Utopia Treasury: A Repository of Utopian Ideas
Drop-in for regular talks and events on contemporary issues inspired by themes from the 500 year old text, a rolling programme of art installations, and a library of Utopia themed literature.
Top Pick
25 Jan to 30 Nov 2016
Online
Call for 500 Utopian Ideas
We are crowdsourcing a practical guide to Utopia which will be published in early 2017. Please help by sharing your ideas with us. What idea would take us towards your Utopia?
Free
27 Jul 2016 to 31 Jan 2017
Online
Music Heard Through Utopia
An eclectic online exhibit on the Google Cultural Institute looking at British composers, performance artists and bands through themes found in Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’.
Curated by Utopian Treasurers Emily Medd and Ayumi Konno, as part of Sound and Music‘s British Music Collection, a 21st century tool for artists and audiences to discover the story of British contemporary music.
Free
4 Oct 2016 to 27 Jan 2017
Lily Safra Room, East Wing
Nova Utopia, Stephen Walter
Nova Utopia (2013) is a modern fictionalisation of Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’, by artist Stephen Walter. The island consists of 54 towns within 10 regions. The border around the island has a key allowing the viewer to identify certain activities or places of interest on the map.
8 Oct 2016 to 8 Jan 2017
The Courtauld Gallery
A Civic Utopia: France, 1760 – 1840
This exhibition considers the place of architecture in establishing the notion of public life. It brings together an outstanding selection of architectural drawings of public building and public space in France that pursued the Enlightenment idea of a ‘scientific’ city, expressing rational, hygienic and symbolic expressions of an ideal civic life.
Free
20 Oct to 29 Nov 2016
Utopia Treasury, South Wing
Ravensbourne Utopian Objects
This installation shows a selection of utopian objects, made in September by Ravensbourne College students, in response to the concept of utopia.
More of the students’ outcomes can be seen in the accompanying film currently being screened in the Treasury.
8 Nov 2016 to 1 Jan 2017
Verso Anniversary Edition of Utopia
In this quincentenary edition, co-published by the Somerset House Trust and Verso as part of Utopia2016, More’s text is introduced by award-winning fiction writer China Miéville, who explores the limits of today’s utopias while insisting on the necessity of utopian thinking. The book includes essays from Ursula K. Le Guin, today’s most distinguished utopian thinker, on her lifelong engagement with More’s project.
Free
14–20 Nov 2016
Utopia Treasury, Great Arch Hall
Film: Where are we now by Giulia Saccogna and Damian Hicks
Where are we now is a cultural cross section of Europe and Asia, motivated by the recent migration crisis and exploring the links between place, belonging, happiness and people’s hopes and perception of the future. Video interviews filmed on a cycling trip create a Utopian non-place inhabited by the interviewees.
Free
19–20 Nov 2016
Utopia Treasury, South Wing 14.00-17.00, drop in
Workshop: Poetry Doodles
Working collaboratively, fill our Utopian island with your poetry doodles. In this workshop you will explore why our imaginations are so important and use this as inspiration for your writing and drawing. Add your work directly onto an map of More’s Utopia and see the island fill with ideas.
Top Pick
23 Nov 2016
The Anatomy Lecture Theatre, King's College London, 18:30 - 21:00
Longplayer
Each year leading cultural figures are invited to conduct a public conversation inspired by Longplayer, a composition which unfolds, in real time, over the course of a millennium.
The 2016 Longplayer Conversation will take place as part of Utopia 2016 between Ali Smith and Marina Warner.
Free
25 Nov 2016
The Council Room, Strand Campus, King's College London, 17.00 - 19.00
Reclaiming Utopia: Challenging the Financial Imagination
Join Chiara Bottici, Max Haiven, Cassie Thornton, and Johnna Montgomerie, and explore what types of imagination drive today’s dominant economic and political fiction. Why do counter-utopias lag behind liberal and financial utopias? This panel discussion invites provocative reflections from academics, activists and artists on the possibilities of reclaiming radical utopias as a response to an all-powerful ‘financial imagination’.
26 Nov 2016
Screening Room, South Wing, from 14.00 - 16.00
STACK MAGAZINES: Makers Talk Series
Hear from the magazine makers themselves in a series of talks by new publishers, selected from the Stack Awards Launch of the Year category, including 212, Accent, Ladybeard, Little Atoms, Rough Trade Magazine, and Yuca.
All proceeds go to Refugee Action
Free
26 Nov 2016
Utopia Treasury, South Wing, 11.00 - 17.00
STACK MAGAZINES Utopian Takeover
See the most exciting magazines from outside the mainstream. Shortlisted titles from this year’s Stack Awards will be available to read in the Utopia Treasury. Take a seat and enjoy the fresh new ideas, aesthetics and oddities contained within these fantastic magazines, and hear from the makers themselves in our series of talks by new publishers, selected from the Launch of the Year category.
Free
27 Nov 2016
Utopia Treasury, South Wing 14.00-17.00, drop in
Workshop: Radical Robes
Take inspiration from costume maker John Foley’s utopian robes and create your own, using rainbow wool, colourful feathers and fabric pens. Decorate them as you think they would in Utopia, try them on and take them away with you for your dressing up box.
Suitable for all ages
Free
28 Nov to 4 Dec 2016
Utopia Treasury, South Wing
Film: Moving Museum 35 by Mira Calix
The moving museum 35 is a collaborative project created by artist Mira Calix during her MIRChina residency 2016. Mira wanted to shift the location of the museum philosophy into everyday life and onto the no 35 commuter bus in Nanjing, China. This new iteration of the work will take the format of a audio/video installation.
Free
1–31 Dec 2016
Utopia Treasury, South Wing
Gifts by Clare Whistler
An installation inspired by a naming day gift for Clare’s eldest son: a box containing an egg for life, coal for heat, evergreen for eternity, salt for health, a candle for light, a coin for wealth and a silver ring for love throughout life. From 2005-2015, using gift economy, Clare revealed each object in its utopian state, generating collaborations and re-energising the meaning and cultural significance of gift-giving.
1 Dec 2016
Screening Room, South Wing 19.00 - 21.00, £5
Future Assembly
Join us for an evening of discussion with expert speakers, followed by a collaborative brainstorming session exploring how we can engage citizens and stakeholders in imagining the future and together start building a better world today.
Future Assemblies was a two day pilot in which teenagers joined forces with over 60s to co-create visions of a future they wanted to see in 10 years’ time.