Building Babylon

Synopsis

Follow a seasoned explorer as he travels the world seeking out the values and practices of contemporary and ancient civilisations in order to build his own perfect a la carte civilisation.

We always look at ancient and indigenous civilisations as pure, unchanging or scarred by modern ‘interference’. But all ways of life evolve and grow, they borrow from each other and their values and practices become intertwined, often for the benefit of all within that society. In this 8 x 24′ travel series, our adventurer will immerse himself in ancient and contemporary societies across the globe in order to build his own perfect a la carte civilisation.

As he travels and builds up a visual journal of what he admires in each culture, an unseen painter will slowly fill the walls of a large room with a beautiful tapestry depicting his fictitious way of life, in all areas of art, architecture, music, storytelling, technology, trades and skills, social hierarchy and customs. His model will be based on an unspoilt natural Irish landscape.

The odyssey begins with a Trad session on the west coast of Ireland. This is the essence of what he is seeking to build - a close community, working together and celebrating itself. This series will take him around Europe, exploring cultures past and present. In a bare white room, the painter lays out the landscape around which he will build this fictitious society. In episode 1, he delves into the rich cultural heritage of the British Isles.

Obviously you need more than music and merriment to build a practical way of life. He will set down some structures based on what he finds in Ireland, and these will then evolve and grow as the series progresses. He goes on to visit some craftsmen in Galway. Their skills and the tools they use are the ultimate definitions of humanity. He is also fascinated by the Gaelic clan system and bases his initial social and economic systems on them. But he would prefer for them to incorporate the kind of local democratic politics he finds around Ireland.

He visits some old monasteries and though he is not looking to adopt any religious beliefs, he is interested in the skills of the early monks. He tags along with a Catholic priest and decides that he needs spiritual advisors like him, but that they won’t be men or women who necessarily ‘speak to God’. Sport is essential and so he adds rugby, Gaelic and soccer, as well as the passion of the Munster supporters. His houses will be thatched like those in Adare, with contemporary ideals of sustainability etched into the minds of all. He admires the murals of Ulster, but not the sectarianism that inspires them.

Moving on to Scotland, he admires the Highland games but is unimpressed by the hard living of many Scots. The Neolithic monuments of Stonehenge convince him that these are essential statements of any grand way of life. His visit to Wales convinces him of the importance of a society where language is as important as music and sport in defining the national character, but as he drives to London he is disappointed by the loss of a mythic feel to the landscape. In the capital, he sees the importance of grand buildings in giving that society a feeling of gravitas, but his is unconvinced by the apparent ‘greatness’ of the British Empire, and decides that this is no way to build a truly great way of life.

For the rest of the series, he will blaze a trail across Europe adding the Viking love for adventure, French cuisine and the political structures of ancient Greece. He is inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment and Renaissance, and disgusted by the evils of Fascism and the corrupt dynasties of the late 18^th century. By the end of series one, he will have introduced the audience to many fascinating ideas, practices and personalities, and built up a detailed society with elements borrowed from cultures across Europe. He then moves on to immerse himself in the rich cultures of Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania.

Overall the series will act as an observational travel show in the vein of the Michael Palin series, but with an added sense of purpose. It should give traditional travel series a meaningful boost, with a message for idealistic souls and those wary of today’s increasingly multi-cultural societies alike.