Visions of Deep Future
These are a series of works that respond to normative assumptions of technological progress. Building off of previous ethnographic research on the effects of Elon Musk and SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas, these works explore the concept of reimagining a Martian subjectivity, a term I use to describe the alienation from land and place which arises in people who live under systems of settler colonialism, neoliberalism, and private property. Inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s works of speculative science fiction, these works combine foraged materials, digital media, and disparate technologies to envision technological practices that may redefine social-environmental relations in the far future, on Mars, and/or our current moment.
Towards a Foraging Methodology
Here foraging and craft alongside video installation are a methodology to reorient myself to Santa Cruz, California, the ancestral homelands of the Uypi people and stewarded now by the Amah Mutsun tribal band, while attending to the politics and sites of conflict that arise in such a contested and diverse landscape. In foraging for pampas grass, a deeply invasive plant that plagues many coastal areas in the world, I attempt to use craft methods to remediate this plant and myself with the world. From making paper out of pampas grass, the piece Untitled (Burning) involves projected paper installations that mimic fire, exploring the role that fire has in the California landscape both current and historical.
