But what does Utopia mean?

 My ex once posed the question to me “how much have you thought about how we get to true utopia?” 

It is an interesting thought experiment because it forces one to think not just about the basic elements of society but also all the aspects of humanity that can undermine that desired goal. This all came to mind recently at a concert. The performance was noise music performed by Warren Realrider & Mateo Galindo. In my opinion, as a person who regularly consumes noise music, it was amazing! 

After I opened up and prepared the performance space, I found myself reading an anarchist article referencing the search for utopia and the issues that arise. As can be expected, a focus on the abandonment of currency, economy, and government were significantly present, but little was present regarding the actual human response to these changes. 

This human reaction to unfamiliar things coincidentally came to light after the concert when one of the local residents, who was not as familiar with noise music, joined the audience. While the person expressed interest and enjoyment from the music he was quick to explain that he too was a musician and began offering criticism of the music. While his criticism was constructive in nature, there was a sense of conflict and defensiveness that arose. The performers and other audience members began questioning this individual about the music they performed. In my opinion the questions were out of curiosity but had a certain amount of directness that comes from people in the art world. As the questioning continued, the audience member became more and more defensive and gave vaguer and vaguer answers out of what can be assumed is a fear of being questioned. 

How does this relate to utopia you ask? It is all about how we as humans react to things that are remarkably different to our typical world experience. There is a distinctly negative response we encounter; a resistance to variety and change. This is exemplified by this new audience member’s suggestions of "fixing the EQ" as a response to the noise music followed by their increased defensiveness at the additional questioning. This response can be expanded to predict the reaction of the general populace to the changes necessary to truly reach utopia. Though they may begin with excitement, energy, and interest; as people are pushed to engage in more uncomfortable situations, they may become aggressive, defensive, and hostile towards those changes they were originally excited to engage. 

In the collection "Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 20th Century" edited by Chris Spannos, Ezequiel Adamovsky addresses this resistance by saying "It does not matter if it is a criminal, a madman, a union striking, or an anti-capitalist groups doing direct action: whenever there is fear of catastrophic disorder and of the dissolution of social bounds, right-wing calls to order find a fertile soil." (Adamovsky, 348) In this, Adamovsky is arguing that the right-wing charge is the status quo and societal modus operandi which is being challenged by any action from outside that "norm." This challenge is met with fear by society which is causing a push against and away from those changes. 

Jerry Fresia, in their essay "A Call to Artists: Support Parecon" found in the same volume above, argues that "[...] our responsibility to artists is to help invent institutions that protect and expand the opportunity for autonomous creative work." (Fresia, 76) In this way, Co-OPt: Research & Projects is already providing that space by creating an environment for music that otherwise would not have a venue within Lubbock, Texas. This could only benefit from the opportunity to engage the community outside of the artistic circle both with more showings and, more importantly in my opinion, the chance to explain what is going on with this utopic music that is challenging the musical status quo. 

So, how do we actually get to a true utopia? We keep pushing against the status quo, continue to create spaces for the fringes of art and creativity, and prepare to respond to the reaction that most likely will will arise. 

Anyway, all this is to say I really enjoyed the show and was able to let my mind float in the beautiful space created. 

Until next time,

~Justin 

Adamovsky, E. (2008). Autonomous Politics and its Problems: Thinking the Passage from Social to Political. In C. Spannos (Ed.), Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century (pp. 346–362). essay, AK Press.

Fresia, J. (2008). A Call to Artists: Support Parecon. In C. Spannos (Ed.), Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century (pp. 76–82). essay, AK Press.