Dystopia is in great demand. It can be encountered in film, in literature and in world politics. Authoritarian regimes, the global power of internet corporations, ecological catastrophes and natural disasters—add them all up and they make for a terrifying vision of the future.
But dystopia isn’t just disturbing. Precisely because it is fictional, it is a time-diagnostic tool—and »a warning not to let it get so far,« as the philosopher Ágnes Heller emphasizes. Dystopia thus exerts a broad fascination. Like utopia, it is a »creation of a passionate imagination, though governed not by hope, but by fear.«1 ‘Utopia and dystopia are two sides of the same coin’ (Gregory Claeys): by striving for true perfection in a utopia, forcing the individual to restrictions and social conformity can not be avoided.
In sound art, topia—spaces and places—play a central role in their atmospheres, histories and potentials.The DYSTOPIE Sound Art Festival visits places with unusual past and open future and transforms them through sound art positions from different cultures.
Central questions of dystopian thinking such as social and political oppression, the imponderability of technologies and massive interventions in the environment are discussed in sound installations and performances for 10 days. With many guest artists from Istanbul, the Dystopia Festival culminates in a topical, political focus on Turkey.
Video documentation (13min.):