Plutopia is influenced by the French sociologist Jacques Ellul’s discourse on ‘technique’ – defined as “all refined methods that impose absolute efficiency in every human field of activity” in his seminal work ‘The Technological Society’ (1964).
The video contains musings by Ellul in which he outlines the history of technique and technology and its consequences for post-industrial society. Images of nature and the organic are juxtaposed with the artificial urban environment.
The second half of the film elucidates Ellul’s plea contained in the ‘Last Words’ of ‘The Technological Bluff’ (1990) – to recognise our freedom by acknowledging the bind in which we are held by blind deference to technology.