Otro Mundo Nos Espera
2017-18
Multimedia Project + Photographic Documentation, Dimensions variable
Otro Mundo Nos Espera speaks from the nearness of afar, from the space in-between, providing glimpses of other worlds and other lives lived along, across, and in spite of borders. Produced through a series of workshops facilitated as part of Cog•nate Collective with students in the San Diego State University Chicana/Chicano Studies program (Spring + Fall 2017 semesters), this multi-media project took shape from conversations on the role cultural production can play in fomenting political dialogue, honing in on the ways art can construct alter-native frameworks to contemplate the San Diego/Tijuana border region.
As part of a special-studies course within the Chicana/o Studies Department, students became interested in thinking through the implications of using the word “alien” to refer to immigrants, and more widely, to serve as a designator/marker of “other-ness” – establishing divisions that are meant to distinguish “us” from “them”.
This became the basis of the series of performative “sci-fi” inspired gestures which set out to facilitate trans-border encounters of a close kind, with the certainty that another world is not only possible, but that it already exists, and it is anxiously awaiting our arrival. In addition to the various audio components relating to the project, we also set out to produce visual documentation of the process of “Space Exploration”, in relation to the border. The resulting materials were compiled and exhibited in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (Downtown) in winter 2017-18.
Below is an abridged segment of audio that was pirate-radio broadcast at the San Ysidro Port of Entry as part of the project and subsequently pressed as a limited-edition vinyl record.
Otro Mundo Nos Espera speaks from the nearness of afar, from the space in-between, providing glimpses of other worlds and other lives lived along, across, and in spite of borders like the one that separates the U.S. and Mexico. As part of a two-semester-long collaboration with SDSU Chicana/o Studies students in the Spring and Fall 2017, we conducted research in relation to NASA’s Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) -- projects which have sought to establish contact with extra-terrestrials by offering glimpses + introductions to the human race, opening the door for communication by sending out a calling card so-to-speak. One such initiative was the Golden Record, a 12-inch copper phonograph record placed on the Voyager 1 & 2 space probes, which contained audio recordings + images from earth – a time-capsule that represents the human race for extra-terrestrial beings who might one day encounter the space-crafts. On the 40th anniversary of their launch into space, students created a site-specific iteration of this record: recording and representing the US/Mexico border for an audience “out there”, who may be unfamiliar with the site and the communities who inhabit it. This audio is an abridged version of three projects produced as part of our collaboration, which sought to create close encounters of a trans-border kind, with the certainty that another world is not only possible, but it already exists, and it is anxiously awaiting our arrival.