Conclusion

When it comes to explaining what this project is about, I never know how to start. For me, it is about everything. It is not just another design fiction, it is personal.

I have started to work on Planet B with excitement about moving to Mars. While researching more on the topic, I realized that it is more complex and versatile than I thought. My point of view changed completely when, after discovering the homesickness theme, I continued to find more and more ethical critique on space exploration. Some of the points, like aesthetic or linguistic, were underestimated and not well-known in society. That is why I set myself a goal to reveal all the ethical issues of space exploration in order to increase the awareness of the problems.

I have found some connections and came to a single cause of all the issues. These were still existing consequences of the Colonial era. They have a dramatic impact on all the spheres of life. No matter whether it is rocket science or art, we still can notice the same imperialist colonial patterns in them. The oppressing western graphic design “standard” and the terraforming of Mars have all the same roots. The capitalist system is the main sponsor of colonization, racism, cultural appropriation, and many other issues. It created the system of oppression that I find necessary to debunk. That is why I think it is important for designers to decolonize their design practice and thus, to start changing the inadequate norm.

The final form of Planet B is an installation with a diverse range of digital and analog graphic elements. It is a design-fictional project of the Defensive Pessimism type which speculates on pessimistic scenarios of the future to improve design ideas. Within this project, I accomplished the initial goals and found colonial patterns in visual communication and space exploration, attempted to increase the awareness of this problem through the documentation website, and contributed to the Decolonizing Design Movement by bringing the topic of design under capitalism to a broader discussion.

I hope Planet B may offer a different perspective on the ethical issues of space exploration and also on colonial patterns in visual communication. With this project I do not claim that we need to stop exploring space or that a settlement on Mars is overrated. On the contrary, I believe they are absolutely worth it, and I am still excited. Curiosity and perseverance are gorgeous qualities of humanity.

My point is that we need to stop, have a look around, and rethink our attitude to life, including space exploration and visual communication.

Do we want our future to be shaped into the familiar colonial form, full of disrespect and greed? Or do we want the world to be a better place inhabited by a conscious and mindful species that does no harm to anyone and anything around them?