2016

7 Exercises in Practical Utopia


YKON together with New York-based Culture Push

7 Exercises in Practical Utopia was a week-long series of events that create and discover practical utopias in New York City. During the week artists and participants would apply the concept of Practical Utopia to daily life through a series of exercises, prompts, and gatherings. The term “Practical Utopia” reflects the desire for large scale changes to the current system of society by initiating the first practical steps towards such changes right here and now. “Practical Utopia” insists on the necessity of Utopia as an intellectual concept interlinking the fantastical and the pragmatic in bringing about social, political and artistic change.

Each day fellows from Culture Push’s Fellowship for Utopian Practice would provide
participants with a set of questions that challenged their preconceived notions of reality and allow them to bump up against new forms of thinking and doing. Each evening participants were invited to join YKON and Culture Push organizers to discuss the day’s happenings and debrief at a “Random Bar.”




Participating artists were:
Yvonne Shortt
Walis Johnson
aricoco
James Andrews
Noemí Segarra Ramírez
Culture Push and YKON


7 Exercises in Practical Utopia is made possible in part with support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.