Posts Tagged ‘Dreams of Progress’

As part of the Children’s Art Day 2009 and the Dreams of Progress exhibition, a storyboarding workshop was organised for the pupils of the year 4 from St Clement Danes School. Children learned how to create storyboards from pre-existing video material. Besides the fun and practical experience gained from the workshop, kids also learned how the same video footages can be sequenced to create many different stories;  how what is showed everyday on TV is not an exact representation of reality but the result of a montage.

This paper introduces some of the aspects and philosophical questions related to the concepts of Progress and Utopia. It has been written as part of the Dreams of Progress video art exhibition and philosophical debate, serving as a framework for the selection of the artwork but also as an analysis of the resulting tensions.

Here are the books that have been used to prepare the Dreams of Progress philosophical debate, centred around the themes of Utopia and Progress. Books and authors with an asterisk (*) can be borrowed for free at the Westminster Reference Library and other libraries of Westminster: http://www.westminster.gov.uk/libraries/.

• Utopia* by Thomas More*, 1518
• A house of memories* by Rev. Isaac Hartill*, 1900
• Brave New World* by Aldous Huxley*, 1932

A philosophical debate about Utopia and Progress was held at the WRF in July 2009, as part of the Dreams of Progress video art exhibition. The debate attracted around 50 people from various backgrounds, including professors from London universities, philosophical students, art curators and engineers.

(press release)

6^th – 18^th July, Westminster Reference Library, London, free admission

Short movies from international artists have been gathered along with corporate videos to form the Dreams of Progress art exhibition. Taking place at the Westminster Reference Library between the 6^th and 18^th July, the event will showcase past and present visions of the future.