All language subtitles for BBC.Utopia.In.Search.Of.The.Dream.Series.1.3of3.A.Good.Place.Within.1080p.HDTV.AAC.hevc

Utopias come and utopias go.

In this series, we've explored these
visions of a good place as blueprints

future societies and as new ways of
living, grand designs and experimental

communities that have often failed.

But is there another path to utopia?

Smaller, more human in scale, a spark of
creativity, a moment of perfection?

a sense of transcendence?

Can we find utopia within?

Is utopia, after all, just a state of
mind?

In this episode, I turn the camera on
perhaps the most intriguing aspect of

relationship with utopia, how we relate
to the idea as individuals.

This is not about the utopia of the
future, but about the utopia of now.

I think it's really beautiful and very
powerful.

You could call it the aha moment, that
moment when you go, wow.

The ways we've created to immerse
ourselves in a better moment.

If I'm reading a crowd, I can build like
an entire emotion.

To push the boundaries of art and
expression to find authenticity.

People being more expressive, more
loving, more argumentative, more of

It's about how the belief in better.

pushes us to be all that we can be.

If we want to find utopia, perhaps we
first need to understand what happens

grand utopian visions fail.

With the Velvet Revolutions of 1989,
followed by the rapid collapse of the

Soviet Union in 1991,

it seemed to many Western minds that
Eastern Europe had suddenly awoken from

utopian dream, or nightmare, of
socialism.

But I think that the toppled statues
gathered here in a park in southern

Lithuania reveal a fascinatingly complex
story about our relationships.

with utopia.

These are symbols of what was once
envisaged as a paradise of equality and

power of collective effort.

But it was a utopia that crumbled.

The economy stagnated, party power was
often arbitrary and corrupt, and many

people felt that they were not given
sufficient freedom.

And yet, as the old system was swept
away, Was something lost?

Diamantas Narkivisius is a Lithuanian
artist.

Originally trained under the Soviet
regime, he gained growing international

attention when he captured the strange
emptiness left behind when Soviet

landmarks were suddenly removed.

I was aware that the city would look
different when the objects will be gone.

And I wanted really to document the last
moment.

In his 2016 work, Doubled Youth,
Diamantas recorded the removal of 1950

socialist realist statues from a bridge
in central Vilnius.

This is lack of cultural sensitivity.

to understand that when the political
regime is gone, the art objects produced

during that regime does not
automatically represent that regime.

It becomes cultural objects.

You seem to be suggesting that we still
need to respect cultural outputs.

Through culture, we understand history
richer and more complex.

Daimanta takes me to the bridge to see
what's become of the now post -utopian

space.

So when the sculptures were taken down,
the four plinths were standing empty and

they were looking really provocative
because they were suggesting that there

something there, obviously, and it's
something supposed to be there.

And I think for a while there was even
an attempt to use them for car

advertisement. It didn't work because I
think people started to protest because

it looked very vulgar. And then arrived
these pots with the flowers.

I think there will be debates coming
what to do with these empty plants in

future. So it strikes me that there's a
kind of hunger now for a more socially

aware kind of art to appear back on the
bridge.

Do you see it that way?

Well, partly, yes, because I think you
should understand that the society

pretty poor during the or even post
-socialist period and they were really

to get you know better off you know like
get cars and clothing and houses and

film but i think now 25 years later
they've got that and then people

think what is next what is the vision
because nobody was thinking about kind

future they were thinking about past so
we're kind of missing utopian vision I

think so.

Plim.

With flowerpots on top of them.

They appear to be metaphors for our
society nowadays, perhaps a little short

grand shared aspirations.

Communal utopian ideologies seem to have
failed or faded.

We're left to shape our own lives.

But we're still searching for that good
place, trying to find our own utopias in

our own countless ways.

Perhaps the most commonly held utopian
dream today is the idea that you can buy

your way to happiness. You can buy your
way to a better place.

It's the utopia of consumption.

We've long been bombarded by advertising
with the simple message,

make you happy.

Buying things gives you freedom, choice
and control in ways that the socialist

utopias could never match.

But is a consumerist utopia in its own
way just another illusion?

How much freedom or control do we really
have when our desires are constantly

stimulated but can never be sated?

As new products become available,
there's always something else to buy. If

I had a bigger telly, a flatter telly, a
curved telly, a 3D telly, a telly with

surround sound, then I would be in a
good place.

But of course it's a myth.

The good place of consumption always
lies just, just, just beyond reach.

You never quite get there.

This spectacle of capitalism, of
consumerism that we live amongst is

into thinking we can find our way to
happiness through purchasing.

On the face of it, the digital
revolution, the massive technological

living through today, seems to promise
yet more of that consumerist spectacle.

More than 3 billion of us now live our
daily lives hooked to screens that are

often seeking to sell us ever more
goods.

Now we can access the promise of a
consumerist utopia at the click of a

But is there a more positive story to
tell about the digital world?

Can it empower us, be about more than
just consumption?

Many digital spaces have been imagined
to allow us to create, and just as

importantly, control our own utopias. So
this is actually the computer we

created civilization on.

Sid Meier, creator of Civilization.

He's one of the great innovators of the
digital revolution.

You had to put eight different disks
into your computer and copy them over

your hard drive before you could play.

He pioneered open world strategy games
as personal computers filled homes

the planet in the early 1990s.

Civilization. I'm ready. I can do it.
Building new world.

All in caps.

In Maya's game, you create your perfect
world digitally from the comfort of your

own home, leading people from the dawn
of time to the space age.

I'm very touched that you chose to call
your tribe the English.

You're welcome.

The desire to create perfect digital
worlds has proved popular. In the last

years, Civilization and its sequels have
sold over 40 million copies.

And so it falls upon you to fulfill our
people's true destiny.

Under your leadership, we shall surely
prosper.

From the seeds of this small settlement
shall you grow our empire. Our people

await your command.

I think there are some real comparisons
between...

Certain utopian urges, the desire to
explore, to contest and to protect

utopian vision it is that one has, and
the game civilization.

Do you agree?

I've never actually looked at it that
way, but now that you mention it, I can

see the parallels. In a utopia, I think
we'd expect technology to progress and

technology to bring us advances and a
better life.

I think we'd expect nations to
communicate with each other and work

I think we would expect exploration. I
think we'd expect to explore our planet

and after that explore the solar system
and the universe around us. So although

Civ wasn't really designed with the idea
of utopia in mind, I think many of the

processes that are part of the game
would be part of a utopia.

To ensure the safety of our borders, we
must defeat the enemy.

at its source in playing civilization
there can be quite a desire to

defend your ideal utopian society that
you're building there's something very

human about that I do think the players
get invested in what they create because

they know that it's unique.

They've designed it, they've built it,
they've made all the decisions that went

into getting to this point. So there's a
strategy we call turtling, which is

kind of just protecting what you built
because you really invested in it and

want to keep it safe from all the forces
of the world that are trying to take it

away from you.

There is aggressive expansion, conquer
the world strategy.

But there are also culture victories or
wonder victories. If you can build these

great wonders, you can win the game. Or
if you can bring on world peace, that's

another way of winning the game.

Truly, we have achieved a golden age of
peace and cooperation.

Civ has gone from kind of being just a
game to people really thinking that it

represents a version of the real world.

And now they start to think, you know,
well, I'd really like the world to be a

peaceful place. And I want to try that
strategy because it's not just a game on

my computer.

It's kind of a representation of what
could happen in the world. And that

a whole different type of thinking.

That whole new type of thinking could be
key to building tomorrow's utopias.

Look around you.

The monuments for the old ways of
utopian thinking are everywhere.

Religious salvation, empire building,
the powerful have shaped our world. But

now, perhaps for the first time in human
history, the common man and woman has

been given the chance to design and
share their own utopias on a global

Here in a refurbished tobacco warehouse
in East London, Young people gather, not

just to get lost in their own utopias,
but to use digital tools to make a

difference in the real world.

I'm going to go see the northern light.

Ah, that's exceptionally beautiful.

It's really very mellow.

There's a stick on the floor.

I can pick it up.

So I am now holding a stick into a fire
to see whether it burns.

That's amazing.

I think the word digital has been
misinterpreted in this age as something

unreal or untouchable, something we
can't experience.

For us, it's something that's just in
another medium.

It may not be physically touchable, but
the experiences that you can have with

it are just as real.

James Delaney is an architect and
entrepreneur.

who uses the most influential game of
the last decade to give individuals the

tools to rebuild their real environment.

Minecraft, originally a game aimed at
children, started as a kind of digital

Lego.

Players place and destroy blocks in an
infinite world, limited only by their

imagination. When you're building, could
it be the case that another member of

your team is building...

in the same digital space at the same
time. And can you see them working? You

can see them working, and that doesn't
sound like a big deal, but it makes the

whole process responsive. So every block
you place then becomes a response to

what others are building around you.

You're not alone. It's not designing a
building from the point of view of a god

or some sort of disconnected view.

You're actually in the world that you're
building, and I think that really helps

you think about how the space is going
to be experienced and used once you're

finished.

In 2013, James Delaney founded
Blockworks, his company which

architectural process through Minecraft.

In this UN -sponsored program,
Blockworks introduced Minecraft to a

community in Indonesia so that they
could work together in redesigning and

rebuilding their town square.

So as part of the community
consultation, we discussed their

space. Playground for the children who
didn't have a place to play, water

fountains, fresh water.

The elders of the village wanted to see
this traditional Javanese hut.

And this is all co -designed with the
people who are going to end up living in

the space?

Yeah, absolutely. It comes from them.

I give them a brief talk on the concepts
of public space and different examples

from around the world, but ultimately
it's up to them what they want to see

there. And I think this taps into a
completely new way of thinking about

design, which is bottom -up. The
architect, as brilliant as he is, is

of autocratic in his design of public
space, and it's his vision of what that

space should be.

But surely public space, which serves
the community, the design of that and

experience of that needs to come from
the people who are going to use it.

I can't help thinking that computing
power and connectivity are enabling

extraordinary new ways of engaging with
and shaping the world, especially among

the younger generations.

New forms of digitally empowered
utopianism with roots back in hack

The idea of a bottom -up digital
revolution isn't new.

Hacking started as a way to find
workarounds and cut -throughs. Because

limitations of early computing in the
1960s, often unfairly stereotyped and

bracketed with cyber criminals, real
hackers are not what you might expect.

Here at an international hacking event
in central London, 200 of Europe's best

student hackers are gathered for a 24
-hour hackathon to

find digital solutions to real -world
problems in one packed day.

So where are you guys all from?

I'm from New York. I'm from Germany.
This event seems to be about the power

collaboration.

when it's unimpeded by power structures.

What are you hacking? What's the theme?
Are you picking up on a theme? We are

doing automated search and rescue for
disaster situations.

Essentially the idea is to fly a drone
over a big area and then we

recognise where people are that need to
be rescued.

So I'm kind of trying to get that to
work.

This is the recipe for real social good.

You're not just adding knowledge to each
other. You're multiplying knowledge,

right? I came here with like, well, I
need some with the idea. And I thought

like, well, on my own, this will take
quite a bit of time to do because I have

to acquire quite a bit of knowledge.

But taking it to a hackathon, you have
the opportunity to meet people with

different knowledge backgrounds and then
putting everything together. And I'm

really accelerating this idea.

So you've got a brilliant answer for the
good of humanity, for social good.

Is there any interest, and be honest, in
then trying to sell it?

The best part about the hackathon is we
put all that aside and we say, let's

just fix this, let's build a product,
and then we'll worry about money or jobs

or prestige or merit or acknowledgement.

Essentially, it's fun for business
after. Exactly.

The media often represent hackers as
loners locked in their own obsessions.

In fact, real hacking...

is about inventive teamwork it's a
revolutionary mode of collaborative

and doing there is that thing of you're
learning together you're building

together and you share it with each
other and open source communities and

everything like that and it doesn't
really matter

Anything about who you are as a person,
how you identify, anything like that.

All of those things are kind of
forgotten when you're on a team together

building anything.

And that's really nice. And it's not
something that I've seen many other

Hackathons, it's always, you're all at
the end of the 24 hours pretty, pretty

raw.

And then go off to your bath -blown
corners of the world. To sleep for a

sleep. but everybody's in the same
position and that makes it really nice

everybody's here to do the same thing
and build something cool.

Hackers are no isolated example.

What they embody, the flattening of the
world, the belief that the individual

can make a difference and that
hierarchies cannot constrain creativity

personal expression, is part of a rich
theme of utopian culture, a deeper

tradition. that has shaped our history.

Look closely and you see that the people
have been revolting for centuries.

In St Mary's Parish Church in Worley,
Lancashire, carved into the medieval

seats, you find a much older kind of
hacking.

It's a bit of a weird puzzle.

Why have we got profane imagery sitting
in a parish church in Lancashire?

Here we see a blacksmith replete with
all these tools, shooing a goose.

It's insane.

Under other seats, we find a girl with a
fat ear, a warrior, being beaten

by a woman with a pan.

The pagan and the pious are mixed up in
absurd juxtaposition.

To understand these images, we need to
understand the significance in the

medieval mindset of the carnival.

Every year at Throvetide, before the
abstinence of Lent, normal rules and

hierarchies were hacked during a period
of utopian excess.

It's a fleeting part of the year, also
captured by artists like Peter Bruegel

the Elder, who depicts fun and frivolity
breaking out prior to the dreary grind

of Lent and the return to daily life.

However alien today, the carnival's
turning the world upside down is

that Thomas More, author of the
disruptive fiction Utopia, would have

familiar with.

In the run -up to Easter, the world was
turned upside down.

Women would dress as men and men would
dress as women.

Social relations would become completely
unruly compared to the norm.

People would drink in excess.

They'd be out on the street. They'd
elect a king of fools.

The week of Carnival was really
important.

It was a steam valve. It allowed
tensions that built up during the year.

to relax a little.

But come the end of the week, people
were almost certainly longing for a

to something a little more stable.

In nearby Middleton, Greater Manchester,
this tradition of the citizens' utopia

survives.

This is the annual Pace Egg

play. a revival of medieval customs.

I am the bold Prince Regent.

I rule in this king's stead.

And so I am his only heir.

Full as none upon his head.

The players mock traditional authority
figures.

And I come to fight for old England's
right.

Drop on their heads, or drop on their
hearts.

Arise, arise, most noble man to rise,
and no more dormant lay.

Thank you very much.

At Easter,

the play is taken through six local
pubs.

Oh, is there a noble doctor to be found?

Becoming more and more slurred.

more anarchic, and more ridiculous.

It might

all seem frivolous, but there's a deeper

purpose here.

We're watching the face egg today.

It seems to me like anyone in authority
is fair game.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, things like this are an
opportunity for the downtrodden, as it

just get a little bit back, you know.

Well, it's always the case, wasn't it?
It was the holiday where the people, the

servants and so on, became in charge.

And, you know, the lords of the manor
waited on the servants and they had

special day. And it's all like turning
things on the tail and, you know...

putting it back at the authority.

Well, Lancashire remains as loopy as it
was when I

was growing up, that's for sure.

I kind of love this.

The world is turned upside down at least
one day a year in Middleton.

The fools take over.

The kings seem to fall and rise again.
The doctors are mocked.

And these guys who are doing this, these
payseggers, they all understand that

they're part of a rich old tradition of
mocking power, laughing at authority,

just to let off a little steam before
going back to the usual relations.

The carnival is about coming together
and sharing a moment of freedom

from everyday rules, breaking through
inhibitions.

It's an idea that has spurred
countercultures throughout history.

Music has often been at the leading edge
of this revolt against the mainstream.

In recent times, it's through musical
innovation that downtrodden minorities

have found moments of escape and
transcendence.

In 1980s Chicago, that minority was made
up of often poor, black, gay men.

They found a creative release by
subverting established disco music,

the best parts of songs, and mixing the
beats with a distinctive bass line.

This was house music.

Music designed to get you dancing.

All night long.

It was not just blazing hot, but it was
damp.

You couldn't wipe the sweat away enough.

People were really dancing, like their
life depended on it, like there was

something in it for them beyond just a
good feeling.

You had a moment of absolute freedom.
And as a teenager, that's a big deal,

know. And you're looking for a real
experience.

It was the most real thing that I've
ever run across.

Charles Matlock was right there in the
earliest days of house.

He explains how in clubs, like the
Subterranean Music Box in downtown

there was a new utopian search for
authentic experience, spawning the

youth revolution since the 1960s.

There are largely marginalized
communities that were part of the scene

black kids, Latin kids, large gay
community. That was a gay club, so it

power plant.

And so for straight kids to be going
there, it really was something that you

gay friends and you knew it existed, but
going to a place where you were in the

minority and realizing that they're just
people, and they're people that like

partying the same as you, you realize
that these kind of artificial lines that

we make between...

straight and gay and black and white and
what have you, they're really

artificial. And they're boundaries that
are made up by us.

And if we don't choose to adhere to
them, they really truly don't exist.

So the dance floor becomes a kind of
melting pot where music that is a

of a melting pot is celebrated and
brings communities together.

It is truly one of those things that all
you have to have in common with anybody

else is enjoying this music and wanting
to dance to it. With these clubs, A kind

of escape for the communities of young
people who are colliding inside them.

Absolutely. It did provide an escape and
also safe spaces such that, again,

straight kids going to a gay club, I'd
never look over my shoulder and say,

you know, is anybody who doesn't like me
thinking about doing something harmful

to me? But members of the gay community
certainly did. And so this was a place

that... they could have as their own and
be themselves and not have to worry

about anybody.

Just the normal oppression is part of
the world. So that was definitely an

escape for them from this. But for all
of us, it was an escape from just this

normal world that isn't worried about
what might you want. But it's a

release, right? It's a temporary vision
of a wonderful reality.

It is, it is. But better to have some
time in.

House offered a temporary utopia that
could be revisited again and again, and

that successfully mutated across
borders.

Transnational, it needs no explanation
or language.

When it made its way across the
Atlantic, it had a huge influence on

youth culture.

And on me.

One, two, one, two. I don't really know
any of them shouting poems for you.

This is one of my heroes of house,

a guy called Gerald.

His house hit, Voodoo Ray, which he
composed in a bedroom studio and first

played at Manchester's Hacienda Club in
1988, defined a new era of dance music.

It was an escape.

It was somewhere I could go to and for
people like me,

you'd go in through them doors and
everything would just change.

Your music and house music took me to a
better place on the dance floor. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. And everybody around me on
the dance floor was temporarily in a

better place.

How do you feel when you see a dance
floor erupt and you see them come

and share this experience?

There's that part of the track and,
like, everyone's kind of getting it at

same time what it is.

then yeah, that is, that's the new
token.

You're looking in people's eyes and
they're like, you know, they're having

like the same as you. And you're like,
wow, you can't really buy it. It's just

like this tipping point. It's like this
balance that everything like kicks in at

the same time.

I'm reading a crowd and feeling what's
going on.

And it's like, you know, I can build,
like, an entire emotion just from the

sounds that I've got available.

Watching you on stage, you're in a
mental space.

It's almost like a personal utopia.

I do it on the bus.

Like, sometimes the person next to me
wants to move, you know what I mean? I

just go off, probably. Like, if I hit
that sweet spot, eyes roll back and

everything, I'm sure.

I need to seek help.

A guy called Gerald.

The UK club scene embraced house music
and added its own chemical enhancement.

With ecstasy prolonging the moment of
euphoria, Acid House was born.

With drugs and music combining to create
a form of individual and collective

transcendence, there were echoes of the
1960s counterculture.

Back then, the pop -fueled youth
rebellion morphed into a new search for

self through eastern mysticism and ever
more exotic drugs.

But not all cultures have needed drugs.

to achieve an out -of -body experience.

This is Qawwali, the devotional music of
Sufi Muslims, which has its root in

medieval era Pakistan and India.

What Qawwali singers do, they embody the
idea of taking themselves and audiences

on a spiritual journey.

The central concept in Qawwali is this
idea called Qalandri, which comes from

the word Qalandar.

Qalandars are dervishes.

And the etymology of Qalandar is those
without limits or boundaries

and in medieval texts kalundas can read
people's minds travel backwards

in time and obliterate time and space
and what kawali does is makes this its

central concept so the music itself can
take you into a similar kind of fate

yeah so what the idea is that kawali is
like trance

During a kawali concert, one singer
recites poetry and religious phrases

hand gestures, while a second singer
improvises responses.

The music builds in intensity as the
chorus sings a hypnotic refrain.

By entrancing listeners, through being
overwhelmed by the music, their

ego is dissolved, leaving a void. And
once the void is created, it leaves

to be absorbed by divine dimensions.

Qawwali music is a cosmic quest.

in search of the beloved.

And more often than not, the beloved is
God.

Now, to leave the material world and to
enter the spiritual world requires you

to go through a spiritual station called
bazaar, which means no place

or interspace.

So Sufis had a concept and a word for no
place 200 years before Thomas More

came up with the word utopia, meaning
literally no place.

Kuali is utopian, not just in the state
it tries to induce, but in its communal

endeavour. Just like house, this is
music as individual and shared

This was not religion with a capital R.

The Sufis were really about connecting
with the common man, with the guy

in the fields, the guy living in the
villages, to give the ordinary person

kind of spiritual nourishment, some kind
of way of understanding their place in

the universe.

But what if we don't have to escape
firebugs or spiritualism at all?

What if the way to get to the good place
of utopia is to appreciate more fully

ordinary everyday reality, the wonder of
the moment?

This is Clapping Music, written and here
performed by the American composer

Steve Rice.

Reich was inspired by traditional
drumming patterns.

One performer in each pair is providing
the rhythm while the other is clapping

the same pattern but phasing in and out
of tempo.

The result is one of the classics of
pure minimalism.

To imagine what people will feel when
you write a piece of music, it's

impossible. Where you sit in the room,
who you are, what you have for dinner,

all these things will enter into how
you... Even the same piece played... The

same piece played at another time and
place. Music lives when it's played.

Steve Reich has pushed musical
boundaries by encouraging audiences to

less. He simplifies music to its purest
form.

using repetition and also real -world
sound as instruments.

There's this constant set of astonishing
innovations.

You're taking sound sounds, you're
looping, you're effective proto

you're... using tape right well the
words probably didn't exist when they

that it was called tape loops and tape
this and tape that and now most people

see a tape they think of scotch tape
audio tape is something that they may or

may not have heard of and certainly
rarely seen

sticky life

reich's 1995 composition uses found
sound that he himself recorded in new

With it, he asked us to cut through the
chaos of the city noise and find music

and poetry in the everyday.

The integration of the sound is
basically the idea of marrying, if you

sound sound of the street, the slam of
the car door becomes the bass sound, and

the air brakes becomes the crash sound.

the Porsche horn becomes an oboe, and so
on and so forth. And I think that kind

of thinking is what's in city life,
where you take something that's not a

musical sound, and you think, what's the
musical correlative of that?

Reich's work is meditative, like House
and Koali, but also technically

of musicians and audiences alike.

I get a sense with Reich of the restless
explorer, a utopian testing of what's

musically possible.

Is your musical drive somehow utopian? I
think every artist who's

released an experience is slightly self
-critical, and therefore there's more

in my trash basket than there is in the
finished piece.

So that is certainly trying to make sure
that you do your best.

I think that striving to do the very
best job that you can do is a very good

fairly common human trait.

I mean, I certainly hope that the sound
man, you know, is trying to, and the

cameraman, are trying to do the best
that they can.

Whether it's Steve Wright's music of the
everyday world or the lure of Koali's

higher spiritual plane, This pursuit of
utopia is all about more fully

experiencing a fleeting moment.

It's about the utopia of the now.

How do we get the best out of each
moment, and as a result, out of

For the Japanese, one way to connect
with the pure moment is to represent it

express it through haiku.

The ancient art of extremely precise and
brief poetry.

6am. The cat's tongue in my ear.

Sorry, that's disgusting.

That's brilliant.

It's really good, though.

Maximum impact with minimum words.

Perfection using the fewest syllables.

That's the utopian goal of these members
of the British Haiku Society.

meeting in Fleet Street, London.

Apple blossom, the clenched fist of her
infant, opening.

The image of the child's hand opening
but also like apple blossom opening, I

think it's really beautiful and very
powerful.

Haiku is a very short poem and its
purpose is to capture a moment.

If you see something beautiful and you
describe that in some way that lets the

person who's reading it know.

what you're feeling about it. That's a
beautiful haiku.

First coffee, the bereavement of
overnight mascara.

Yeah, it's a very sharp observation,
and, you know, there's an untold story

behind it. Yeah.

We all just imagine.

There are haiku that you just think, oh,
of course!

Or, oh, I know that feeling.

You could call it the aha moment, that
moment when you go, wow!

Bear, in your bathroom, another girl
uses my rose petal mouthwash.

Achieving the aha moment comes with
limitations.

The sky is bluer, always on the other
side, upchucking homeless.

The only problem with it, of course, is
it's not a haiku moment.

You've set yourself quite tight
parameters.

Do you find that... or do you find it
actually liberating? It makes you think

very hard, and I think that's the joy of
it, really.

So it's limiting, but it's limiting in a
very thoughtful kind of way.

It's a bit like meditation.

You're focusing on one thing.

And Quayside, the fisherman casting out
shadows.

Oh, that's great.

It seems to me that this is really very,
very much about living in a moment and

being aware of the fact that we are
living in a moment. One of the problems

people have, I think, is that they have
this running commentary on their life.

And so when they're out and about...

What they're doing is actually thinking
all the time of, you know, what the

credit card limit is, what time is the
train, you know, is that girl going to

there or whatever or whatever.

Now, the haiku writer has to step back
from that, switch off the running

commentary of your life. And I think
that's why it's so popular with them

Buddhists. Absolutely. Because the whole
stuff about moments and being in the

now. It's being in that state of being
aware.

Do you feel that...

After you've finished writing, you go
back into the real world, better,

enriched, improved.

I think so, yes, because you're seeing
things anew.

Every time you write a good haiku, it's
a small epiphany. You've seen the world

for what it is.

Martin Lucas, who was an outstanding
haiku writer who died recently, he

about haiku being the news.

You know, all the stuff that's happening
on television, that isn't the real

news. The real news is haiku.

If you read haiku, you get the truth.

It's time for me to pursue epiphany. You
need to bear in mind, I've never tried

to write a haiku before this morning.

I've come up with my own haiku about
utopia.

No place, better place.

Imagine, contest, repeat.

The itch, unscratch.

Well, it needs to be about a moment,
really. And it's not, is it?

No. No. And it's got commas in it. We
don't do commas in haiku.

Oh, we do sometimes.

Very occasionally, but not all those.

Yeah, but you're supposed to be
listening to me read it.

You're reading on my shoulder.

OK, I might not be a haiku master, but
I'm still struck by the haiku writer's

desire to record perfectly the moment's
perfection.

Sometimes it's quite tragic, what you're
writing. It's something quite sad and

moving. Sometimes it's hilarious.

Sometimes it's beautiful and succinct.
But it's always looking for something

better.

I think you're utopian.

That kind of glimpse of a fleeting
moment or of something in transition

reflects our relationship to utopia in
that it's never something that can be

experienced completely.

It's always glimpsed.

Getting that glimpse of a better place
that might just help us to be better

people. It seems to me that we try to
unpack the significance of an observed

moment in many ways, not just through
poetry, but through other art forms.

We love to be transported by
storytelling, and no more so than

At multiplexes and in the theatres.

or at home with our various screens, I
think we seek out the truth of other

people's experiences in ways akin to
reading a haiku.

Here, we live precariously through
actors' experiences, moving out of

and connecting emotionally.

People go to the theatre, people watch
movies to see life in all its facets,

sometimes life as it is, but also
sometimes life as it could be.

People being more connected, more
expressive, more loving, more

more of whatever, to have that
additional intensity, that additional

lifefulness. And I think improvisation
can really be a way that if actors

embrace it, you can have a performance
that just gives so much more to an

audience because it's so much more
alive, so much more rich, so much more

A makes a shape, B joins, stay there for
a moment, and then A says, thank you.

Chris Hyman is an award -winning
director.

and an improvisation teacher at RADA.

You're not trying to create, I would
say. You're just noticing your own

to what you're doing.

Here in South London, he's running a
workshop using improvisation to help

lose their self -consciousness so as to
bring greater authenticity to their

performances.

One of the reasons why people act?

You get more permission to be angry or
sad or whatever it is.

And impulse is also what we're looking
for, right? As an actor, between your

impulse and your expression, there is
nothing.

Improvisation like this is inspired by
the utopian performance ideas of Jerzy

Krotowski and the Poor Theatre School,
which revolutionized acting in the 20th

century.

Overturning old -fashioned declamatory
styles, Krotowski argued for a

transparent actor, a kind of minimalism
in acting.

The idea being that you have an actor
who is so transparent that any inner

impulse is immediately expressed.

So there's no filter, there's no armour,
there's nothing in between the actual

impulse happening within and the outer
expression. There's something that I

feel, there's something very, very raw
and exciting also for an audience to

watch and something to aspire towards.

These ideas have been hugely influential
in experimental theatre from Brecht to

Brook. The key insight, it seems to me,
is that all performances are unique.

A collaboration between performer and
audience.

And there's something very generous
here. The performer taking a risk,

back the mask, burying their inner self
to create an empathic connection with an

audience. That was weird. We kind of had
a... We're going to have a fight.

And then it was kind of, I'm...

Being a bit submissive there. Is this
some kind of S &M thing?

Then I would kind of stop my brain, stop
my brain, what's going on? And then

your face, kind of change it to, like,
more grace in your face.

So, yeah, a whole heap.

What I would say, if you as an actor
have the courage to wait until something

genuinely comes to you as an impulse,
you might become dangerous without even

trying, simply because you have the
courage to wait for something to

trigger something.

It seemed to me that there was a kind of
peeling away of,

actually conventions in order to
liberate them a little bit. One of the

that I remember from reading Grotowski's
works is this idea of additive art

versus subtractive art, meaning that in
painting, you start with an empty canvas

and you keep adding the paint, whereas
in sculpting, you chip away stuff in

order to reveal what's already there.

And that is definitely the kind of
approach that I take to actor training.

It's not about slapping more and more
skills onto the actor. It's about

them to let go of unhelpful thoughts,
behaviors, expectations, to come

back to something that is more pure,
that's already there, almost like a

Searching for authentic moments in drama
and storytelling is, I think, more than

an escape from the humdrum of daily
life. It's about something much bigger,

connecting with others.

Every time we tell a story, every time
we enjoy a performance, every time we

think we can feel someone else's
feelings, we're exercising one of the

important traits,

empathy. The more empathetic we are...

the more generous and tolerant we become
as human beings, perhaps the closer we

get to utopia.

This kind of generosity, this sharing of
moving and thought -provoking art, has

a long and rich history.

For me, one of the most extraordinary
attempts to connect was made by a 19th

-century composer.

Idealizing utopian visions from Norse
myth, Richard Wagner tried to create a

total reality in which audiences could
emotionally immerse themselves.

Total art, work that is complete in and
of itself.

This might seem like the naive
controlling dream of a troubled genius,

there's something undeniably generous in
Wagner's desire to share a fantastical

vision. that might inspire audiences to
reflect anew on life

wagner's passion has certainly shaped
one man's life lovely day

builder martin graham connected with
wagner so much he dreamed of staging

wagner's work in his back garden deep in
the cotswolds just in case i ever fancy

building an opera house yes in my
backyard how long does it take does that

dreaming about it yeah Definitely. Oh,
yes.

Yes.

Over the years, Martin transformed the
cowshed next to his house into a fully

functioning opera house, complete with
500 hand -me -down seats from a Royal

Opera House refit.

His labour of love has now staged the
whole of Wagner's 15 -hour -long Ring

Cycle.

Is there a parallel between Wagner's
total work of art, this vision

of the full encompassing experience for
the audience, and the vision that you

had here?

Well, of course.

I didn't think of it in that way when I
started. I just thought I want to build

the theatre and then we'll build the pit
and then we'll build the orchestra. But

in fact, as we went on, people modified
their views and thought, well,

maybe it is possible. Maybe he isn't
completely nuts.

When you listen to Wagner, where does it
take your mind?

It's fantasy and it's magical and it's
emotional and it really tears your

out.

Perhaps it all comes back again to
innocence.

Martin Graham's fascination with the
magical.

started with something we might all
remember and recognise, a child's

When I was a little boy, I used to go
out in the fields, and the first thing I

did when I got out of sight so people
could see me is I put my hand over one

eye. And I used to call that my dark
eye, and it took me to another world.

And it was a little bit of childish
fantasy, and it still comes back to me

a lot.

If you just want to extract yourself
from the world and go into the arts,

do that and you're away.

What I find remarkable is that Martin
Graham has kept his curiosity and his

enthusiasm for the arts and has also had
the self -belief and drive to share

what he loves with others.

I do feel that there is something
utopian about this, that you are

better place here.

There is. There's something absolutely
tremendous, because it's like a love

affair. Once you get going, there is a
reciprocity.

And the sort of people who, your
customers who pay you good money...

and don't mind the odd leaking roof,
they're the giants of it all because

they're just endorsing you and
encouraging you and saying, go on. And

course, they are part of the joint
enterprise.

It's a wonderful, magical feeling to
think all those people enjoyed

for a four -hour, five -hour evening and
come out literally beaming with joy.

For some...

I think it's almost a religious
experience.

In art, in life, to believe in greater
than ourselves is an act of imagination,

of closing the eye, of temporarily
letting go and moving into a better

From Thomas More to Sid Meier.

Explorers... to feminists hedonists to
artists

visionaries and communal pioneers the
steps we have taken to improve

our world sometimes in the face of great
adversity have all started within our

imaginations these dreams are deeply
personal and at the same time

communal

And although utopias fail, although our
gains can be lost, I think that Thomas

More would be proud that the urge to
hope for better, for which he coined a

name, has become something that humans
show no sign of losing.

Coming up, Sicilian sunshine.

And our favorite Italian inspector,
Salvo Montalbano, is back, and with

chance to see the first of the new
series, next.