Utopia & Distopia
Project type: Writing
Designer(s): Chua Jia Ning, Sherica
Year: 2022
Project Description:
The intention is that through such an exercise, they will not only be more capable and articulate (textually and visually) in making connections between topics learned, but also that they will be able to encounter new ways of representing and discussing (textually and visually) not just the theories presented in class but also any ideas encountered outside of this course.
Utopia, in my view, is a place of fantasy where everything is an idealistic place, including in-laws, politicians, and social conditions. Dystopia, on the other hand, refers to an imagined world or society in which people live wretched, dehumanized, and fearful lives. If it’s a reconstructed history or an erased history, it would be an undesirable place.
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One of the examples would be the surveillance robots in Singapore, in 2021, there was an article by The Guardian testing the use of robots to detect “undesirable social behavior”. (The Guardian,2021)
The article was going into the topic of dystopia, after reading the article I would agree with it too. In this case, it is categorized as a dystopia because people in Singapore are living in fear and are hesitant after the testing of the surveillance robots. As some of them feel uncomfortable being watched and recorded, feeling little control over what happens to the data collected.
Well in the article, the government is supporting the “new” robot by explaining that it was a good invention due to the shrinking of the workforce. (The Guardian,2021) From my perspective, it appears to be a dystopia of government totalitarianism, making the locals feel helpless and unprepared for the future.
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