Museum of Resistance and Resilience

In Utopia We Trust

"In Utopia We Trust" is a play on "in God we trust", the official motto of the United States that implies placing ultimate trust in God for citizens' livelihood, or alternatively, symbolizing unwavering trust in a higher power, whether religious or not, for the effective function of society. "In Utopia We Trust" stems from this common belief that all our pains and fears will be eliminated when we achieve utopia as a society, and this phrase reinforces a dangerously optimistic belief that perfection should be the ultimate goal without consideration of the unforeseeable complexities of human beings and the inevitable dystopia that results from any attempts at utopia. Further, the design of this collage shows these supposed utopias revolving mindlessly around this ideal of "in utopia we trust", unaware that they are actually creating their own dystopia by enforcing sameness on human beings with drastically different ideals, values, and beliefs. For this project, we intend to use popular books, movies, and TV shows that depict utopian societies that turn out to be dystopian to emphasize that utopia is not achievable and should not be the ultimate goal. We hope to provide an alternative look at the true implications of perfection when it is enforced on imperfect beings; perfection should not be the most urgent goal on our social and political agenda, rather increased understanding of citizens' concerns and decreased oppression should be of utmost importance.

Contents of this annotation: