Abstract

The politics of Utopia have already produced a rich and varied literature - St. Simon, Buber, Bloch, and many others. Utopian Pulse explores this tradition from the perspective of art practice and asks how we can engage with and contribute to it. This book will be published alongside an exhibition of the same name and will include artwork from the exhibition itself.

The work's contributors invoke Utopia as an always incomplete alternative and a recognition of something missing, which opens up the possibility of asserting something which is not yet but will be. International artistic researchers, artists and artist-curators contribute different modes of engagement which they are already constituting through their own practice. More than just a theoretical treatise, this book is an overview of a series of works and projects that are brought to life and which the book seeks to document.

This book will serve not only as a contribution to the existing literature on Utopia and Utopian politics, but also as an inspiration to artists seeking to realise these ideas through their work.
'In the current, often exhausting debates on the merits of artistic research, this book is like a breath of fresh air, showing how artistic practices and thinking about curating and public programming can unlock a utopian impulse in the tired format of the exhibition, and contribute to new understandings of the political itself'
Simon Sheikh, Programme Director of MFA Curating, Goldsmiths, University of London.
'Escaping what feels like the inevitable end of the planet requires a certain kind of leap of the imagination. This book features the voices of many of today's amazing artists - not the desultory market-driven ones, but those that represent a thoughtful world-concerned vast multitude - whose work points toward a much-needed horizon of possibility'
Nato Thompson, chief curator Creative Time
'A politically important book for anyone living on planet earth to read'
Marge Piercy, feminist utopian writer
'A much-needed contribution to alternative forms of life imagined at the creative intersection of cultural, artistic, and political thought. Ressler and Doujak offer luminescent hope in a cynical and toxic atmosphere of capitalist realism'
T.J. Demos, Professor in Visual Culture, and Director of the Center for Creative Ecologies, University of California, Santa Cruz