At the bottom of the map of Utopia today, and considering the conversation between Thomas More and Peter Giles on the map, and the nature of Utopia’s outskirts.

A conversation between More and Giles by Nimmi Naidoo, Oxford, UK

“I was intrigued by the men in the bottom left hand corner, presumed to be Hythlodaeus speaking to Peter Giles.

What were they saying? Why does Peter Giles look fed up?

Then I read More’s letter to Peter Giles in the preface to Utopia. It is a very a lengthly letter with much detail and many instructions, a letter which went on, and on, and on.

Was Hythlodeus going on, and on, and on, too?

What, I wondered, was going on in Peter Giles’ head as he listened.

My soundscape is an imagined internal monologue as he stood on a cliff top listening to his friend.”

 

The Outskirts by Akoo-o Collective, Athens, Greece

“It’s a privilege to live in Utopia!

First you have to construct it in your imagination, and then build its borders.

But it is after all this marginal, dystopic territory that keeps Utopia together, for all Utopians need to imagine what it’s like to be excluded, and to feel for those who are.

Having this in mind, Akoo-o collective, inspired by Thomas More’s Utopia in negotiation with the dynamics of the current historical moment, composed this piece out of fragments of the 2015 media-scape public discourse, musical elements and field recordings.”