The Failure of the Future

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Johny Pitts examines failed utopias to decipher if they can help us reimagine the future.

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The Failure of the Future: Building Utopias

Building Utopias

BBC Radio 4 - The Failure of the Future, Building Utopias

Johny Pitts looks back at visions of utopias that failed to see if we can build a brighter future from past projections. In Episode 1, he revisits Japan's futuristic cityscapes.

For decades, artists, scientists and philosophers have dreamed up utopias that aim to transform the way we live. But why did they not become the future we are living in today? Is there something in those “what-might-have-beens” that’s worth returning to?

Writer and artist Johny Pitts explores a series of failed visions of the future. But rather than discarding them with the sands of time, he asks what we can learn from those past projections. And might the rubble of these forgotten worlds contain gems that could propel us towards a brighter tomorrow?

For Johny, there was a time when he felt he was living inside the future - 1980s Japan. From flying cars to floating cities, Japan seemed to be mapping out an advanced reality that could shape the future that the rest of the world might live in. And yet, that didn't come to fruition. Across four episodes, Johny picks four key aspects of that alluring era - times of supreme innovation - when a new path was being carved out. Which ideas inside these imagined futures might be worth resurrecting?

In Episode 1, recorded before the earthquake in Japan on 1st January 2024, Johny reviews the idealistic plans of Japanese urban planner Kenzo Tange and the architects he collaborated with who were known as The Metabolists. They set out to create a blueprint for global cities and their work rescued entire cities from total devastation. By reviewing their goal of creating a blueprint for all global cities, Johny asks whether aspects of their forward-thinking ideas are worth harvesting for our own future.

Presenter: Johny Pitts
Producer and sound design: Anishka Sharma
Mix Engineer: Nigel Appleton
Executive Producer: Phil Smith

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