GMU:Designing Utopias: Theory and Practice

This is a tool building seminar. Many of us today believe that we live in a dystopia. Our personal agency and autonomy have been slowly eroding. Many of the tools that were meant to liberate us -- the internet, computers, AI, biotechnology have turned against us. Is it possible to reimagine a future where humans take control of our own narrative or is it lost forever? Do we now learn to live in a dystopia or can we still dare to imagine a Utopia? In this seminar, We will borrow from the toolkit of hackers, designers, artists-collectives, activists and biohackers to learn the tools that they have imagined to create a utopia or fight dystopia. Our final project will critically examine these tools and techniques and attempt to reimagine or rebuild these tools.