For decades, it had been understood as axiomatic that technology was guiding humanity towards a better, possibly even utopian future. And yet, on a daily basis, we are confronted with the old reality that technology is primarily used as the means to all of capitalism’s worst impulses. Technology as a means to circumvent labor and tax regulation. Technology as a means of spreading violent hate under the guise of free speech. Technology as Juicero. 

These are the phenomena that Distant Future Utopias was created to explore. In December 2018, editors Walker MacMurdo and Zach Middleton put out a call for work on the topic of how tech utopians sold the world a bill of goods. We received submissions that answered our call loud and clear.

At just under 100 pages, Distant Future Utopias is an art book and journal that explores the phantasmagoria at the intersection of technology and popular culture. Our essays, short stories, interviews and visual art pieces explore topics including the recent reemergence of news stories about extra-terrestrials, the profound influence Instagram has had on global dining culture, how QAnon is used to create subjectivity, and the world from the perspective of the rifle sights in a first-person shooter.

Designed by Tyler Alexander with Robby Day, Distant Future Utopias bursts with psychedelic color and neural-network warped imagery from an endless digital plane without past or present. All of our pieces are professionally formatted and rendered in two striking new typefaces: Utopia and Eight, designed by Alexander and Day, respectively. Printed in Cleveland, Ohio by Outlandish Press, our vision is brought to life on full color, 32lb Hammermill Paper and bound with 60lb Hammermill cover stock. With only 100 physical copies produced for sale, Distant Future Utopias is a snapshot of an era that will exist in the perpetual present of the internet.