Professor Davide Rodogno of the International History Department at the Graduate Institute, is one of the founders of a start-up and creative laboratory called utopia3. It broadcasts for free on the Internet its podcasts conversations with activists, advocates, artists, scholars, practitioners and policy-makers who think, make and struggle for Human Rights every day, in their own way.
utopia3 undertakes artistic projects, including podcasts, connecting history and art, academic knowledge and pop culture to investigate and question the socio-cultural, economic and political legacies of the Twentieth century.
The core team of utopia3 consists fo five members:
Davide Rodogno: International History professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of Geneva, he works on the history and politics of international organisations, NGOs, grassroot movements, and philanthropic foundations. He research centres on the history and politics of humanitarianism, human rights and the visual politics of humanitarian organisations.
David Brun Lambert: Author of several books, documentaries and web-series devoted to the history of pop culture or the contemporary artistic avant-garde, David is a journalist for the Swiss daily Le Temps and an independent radio producer.
Martial Mingam: Particularly interested in the role of art and creation in our daily environment, Martial Mingam defends a multi-faceted vision of fields of expression and mainly focuses on exploring societal and political themes. Martial is also in charge of the R&D section of the fourth year students at eikon, the Art and Technical School of Fribourg, Switzerland.
Julie Noyelle: After several years in film distribution in charge of marketing and partnerships within major French and American studios, from MK2, Pathe and Europacorp to Twentieth Century Fox, Julie pursues her path in the media universe through this podcast.
Julien Babel: Julien Babel artistic work is connected to cinema, comics, painting and drawing. Julien questions the role of humans in society mixing, blending, superimposing and collapsing images using various techniques.
In March 2020 utopia3 broadcast its first podcast series in collaboration with the 18th edition of the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Right (FIFDH).
All recordings took place at The Spot Podcast Factory, independent art gallery and production studio where utopia3 set up an original, ephemeral, and participative art work.
The podcast have covered a broad range fo topics with a diverse cast of speakers interviewed each episode. Such topics include discussions on the Sudanese Revolution with student activist Alaa Salah; investigations on prison conditions in South Africa with Ruth Hopkins, Ilse and Femke V. Velsen; and how art can be used to create peace with Turkish-Kurdish writer, lawyer and human rights defender Burhan Sönmez.
In one of their most recent podcasts, Professor Rodogno spoke to Lauren Anders Brown filmmaker about her work documenting global health in conflict zones and her documentary, WOMENstruate. This episode can be found below.
If you wish to know more about this project or to listen to one or more episodes, please visit the website and follow utopia3 on twitter.
IMAGE CAPTION: utopia3 in conversation with cartoonist Joe Sacco, Geneva, the Spot - Podcast Factory, March 2020.
Keywords: Davide Rodogno; International History
