SPACE FEM FALLNEWSMAG21
Lastly, thank you to Kelsey Chan for pitching our theme for our Fall 2021 quarter. Thank you to my senior staff and community at FEM for making this all happen, I am forever grateful for your dedication to our publication. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the SPACE issue. It’s out of this world!
EDITOR’S NOTE
Cindy Quach, Editor-in-Chief
The SPACE issue marks the first print issue published “after” the global pandemic. In the past year and a half, we operated remotely, but still were able to produce quarterly zines. However, now that we are back on campus and occupying our office in student media, we are ready to resume back to our print issues.
When I think of space, I usually visualize outer space with its milky ways and fantasies of aliens. At the same time, our planet offers us our own forms of space. Our writers at FEM will take you on an exploration into these various spaces in our universe. Have fun journeying through conceptual spaces, theoretical spaces, physical spaces, cyber spaces, colonized spaces, and sensory spaces. The possibilities are endless! Before sending you off, I would like to use this space to express my gratitude for our 2020 to 2021 Editor-in-Chief, Alana Francis-Crow, for offering us a platform to push our creative endeavors even when we couldn’t meet in person. Additionally, FEM is forever indebted to Shannon Boland for printing, assembling, and distributing our quarantine zines. Although we have been disconnected for some time, we continued to building our community and grow our feminist practices.
SPACE Sounds of Scifi Outer Space Prom Colonization of Space More Fun than Lawns Cyberpunk 2.0 American Suburbia Is Space Still the Place? Charlie Stuip Eva KelseyVanessaJoeyChloëAlexandraSpeiserBaranVigilSigalaDiepChan 08061215162629 FEM NEWSMAGAZINE FALL 21
>NEWSMAGFEM<4FALL.21 STAFF LIST EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Cindy MANAGINGQuach EDITOR Concepcion Esparza ARTS + CharlieSECTIONCREATIVEEDITORStuipCONTENT/COPY EDITING Amariyah,INTERNSCelina Reyes, Gigi Clark, TrishaWRITINGKhattar INTERNS Devyani Dharani, Mariah Hernandez, Maya Raman, Teresa Xu AngelaSECTIONDIALOGUEEDITORPatelCONTENTEDITOR/ ASE Eva SpeiserCOPY EDITORS Emma Lehman, Anouska Saraf, AlexandraCONTENTBaran EDITOR INTERN SabrinaSTAFFEllis WRITERS Ovsanna Avetisyan, Lavanya Pandey, Sophia Pulido, Joey Sigala, Ha My Le Writing Intern: Alexus Torres, Jalyn Wu, Najda Hadi-St John CAMPUS LIFE SECTION EDITOR ChloëCONTENTVigil EDITORS Sarah Huang, Maya Petrick COPY EDITOR AshleyEDITORLeung INTERN Mina El Attar, Lauren Vuong WRITING INTERNS Sofia Rossi, Minnie Seo, Sristi Palimar POLITICSSECTION EDITOR Mar EscusaCONTENT EDITORS Kimia Faroughi, Tessa Fier, Shreya SophiaCOPYKolliparaEDITORSObregon,Isabela Murray STAFF WRITERS Anisha Girotra, Kelsey Ngante, Noor Hasan, Valeria Chavez Nunez, Vanessa Kelsey ENTERTAINMENTDiepSECTIONEDITORChanASSISTANTSECTION EDITORS Maya Lu, Makayla Williams
5<THESPACEISSUE>FALL.21COPY EDITOR INTERNS Julianne Estur, Amanda La, Talia JamilaWay-MarcantSTAFFWRITERCummings,Jessica Thomas, KelseyWRITINGNgante INTERN Amber Phung, Areni Panosian, Bianca Badajos, Esther Myers, Trisha Badjatia, Yasmien AnnaCassidy VIDEOZoëAbbyKatelynnBelaLaurenHailey DESIGNAbunamousSECTIONCO-HEADSLynaugh,GraceCiacciarelli,CramerDESIGNERSChauhan,CoralUtnehmer,PerezFINANCESECTIONHEADGiardinaMEMBERSCollins,RachelChauSECTIONCO-HEADSKohlenberger,JeryleePerezVIDEOPRODUCERSZiser INTERNS Gia Blakey, Kenyon Fonté, Emily SECTIONSOCIALHernandezPLANNINGHEAD Anna MookSOCIAL PLANNING INTERNS Cali Perez Chavez, Kristin Haegelin COMMUNITY OUTREACH INTERN Bobbie RADIOSturgeSECTION HEAD Anjali GabbyRADIOSinghalINTERNSAgustin,LeahJohn, Tiffany Peverilla, Alexa Sisney, Izzi Fraser, Jamie Jiang, Jamila Cummings, Lavanya Pandey, Alexandra Baran, Marianna MandyLexie SOCIALBerntsen-PerezMEDIASECTIONHEADBellINTERNSTang,ReikaGoto,Alyssa Adriano ClarissaMEMBERSPrieto
>NEWSMAGFEM<21.FALL6 SOUNDSOFSCIFI Charlie Stuip, design by Katelynn Perez
We Travel the Spaceways’ titular track “We Travel the Spaceways” is a slow crooning promise. In the middle of the album, this is the track where Sun Ra’s ship is floating through the emptiness of space, looking for a place to land. The chorus sings “We travel the spaceways, from planet to planet.” In the context of Afrofuturism, this song is a pledge to the passengers that they will find a place to land and be free. Anderson’s “Let X=X” is her version of a love song, except it’s sung from a burning building. Yet it is youthful and sweet. Horns, one of the few analog sounds on the album, call out ecstatic. Big Science is not a purely dark album. All of the tracks on it desire communion and an escape from loneliness. Anderson sings on “Let X=X”: “I got this postcard And it read, it said: Dear Amigo, Dear Partner Listen, uh, I just want to say thanks So... thanks!”
Big Science, Anderson’s debut album released in 1982, opens with a crash landing. In the first track, “From the Air”, Anderson introduces herself as the pilot of the album and our doomed flight into the future. She says, “This is the time. And this is the record of the time.” before narrating a plane crash, instructing passengers to “Put your head in your hands.” Despite its catastrophe, the song manages to be cheeky and strange as it sets the scene for an album about violence, isolation, love and the future. We Travel the Spaceways opens with the clanking and squeaking “Interplanetary music”. This song marks the liftoff of the album and of Sun Ra’s ship. The song’s chaos, in contrast with the rest of the album, gives the sensation of exiting the stratosphere. A chorus chants “Interplanetary, interplanetary, interplanetary music.” The song is jarring and almost austere in its clanking high registers. Then the song thickens with percussion as the album is shot into space. “O Superman”, perhaps Anderson’s most famous song, plays like an answering machine voicemail or a prophecy sent across space and time. The song floats 30,000 feet above earth where planes fly. The track is about militarized violence, how it is tied with capital, and its potential to develop into apocalypse. Anderson drones in a distorted voice: “ “Here come the planes, American planes.” “Swift completion of their appointed rounds.” “You can come as you are, but pay as you go.” Written in the Reagan era, its depiction of the military still rings true. The song develops into one of yearning, as Anderson calls into the darkness, “So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. Your petrochemical arms. Your military arms. In your electronic arms”
Artists like Laurie Anderson and Sun Ra use textures of science fiction in their music to imagine alternate spaces for human life. Sun Ra – who mostly worked in the sixties and seventies – is credited as the father of Afrofuturism, although the phrase wasn’t coined until 1993. His music imagined an joyous future for Black people, in space! Laurie Anderson’s music and performance occupy a wide and melancholy space, capturing both the dread and intimacy of floating on this rock called Earth.
>ISSUESPACETHE<21.FALL7
Sun Ra’s We Travel the Space Ways was released in 1967 and recorded with his Myth Science Arkestra. It may not be instantly recognizable as space-age music to our modern ears, as it doesn’t use the synths and digital sounds we have come to associate with sci-fi. At first listen, it may just sound like a buoyant jazz album. But alternative instruments used by the band include toy robots and mini flying saucers to achieve uncanny clicks and whirring sounds. The album is ecstatic and experimental – melding Blues tradition and crooning jazz with staccato spaciousness.
Big Science is about love under heightened circumstances. How do we connect when the stakes are raised? How do we love each other in a plane crash? A burning building? In a catastrophe? Sun Ra’s “New Horizons” is the second to last track on the album and depicts fear of the unknown and later, the ecstasy of freedom and hope – or the landing of the ship. Cymbals hiss, bells jingle, and saxophone occupies a surreal territory between minor and major key. Iadd t is the most ominous song on the album. But then it builds, takes in air. Drums and bass tap at a quick dancing tempo and descend into a gentle outro. The album as a whole is committed to hope in the face of the unknown. Both albums sonically depict a journey. They explicitly recount travel, Anderson on crashing airplanes – militarized and otherwise – Sun Ra on a spaceship bound for paradise. Big Science isn’t pure doom and We Travel the Spaceways isn’t pure joy. They both express fear of the unknown, which is the core truth of science fiction. We live in an era that feels like we are hurtling towards something. A fiery death? A black hole? Paradise? Somewhere in between? Who’s to say. But these albums express this truth through sensory experience.
Where our rational brains can struggle to understand living in this world, music accesses sensory truths. Tenors of strangeness. Vibrations of isolation.
“Love and kisses, XXXX 0000”. Later in the song she sings, “‘Cause I...I feel...Feel like..I am...In a burning building, and I gotta Overall,go…”
She sat in her favorite thinking spot, the supposedly haunted playground behind the abandoned Costco. She didn’t know any cool girls from the Big City, and her best friend Jewel was already going with her partner Ralph. Sulking, she started to wander around the park. Some bastard teenagers had been smoking under the metal slide again and left their garbage. As grimy as the park was, Kali enjoyed the familiar squeak of the swingset moving in the wind, and sat down on the faded orange and blue merry-goround. Something caught her attention: a soft orange light coming from the sandbox. Walking closer, she saw that the light was coming from a glowing orange orb in a puddle of black sludge. She reached out to grab it. The moment her finger touched the light, smoke erupted and she jumped back in shock.
Additionally, I built this body and brain based off of the sample I gathered of your Earthling genetic information before you rudely shattered the physical connection, so this appearance and mind contain only 95% of the normal human contents.”
Suddenly, Kali had the most genius idea. What if she took this girl to prom? She was clearly unlike everyone else at Small Town Regional High (Go Bobcats!). Summoning all the confidence she could muster around this absolutely gorgeous woman, she started, “Sadie, if you are here to find out about Earth culture, I think I could actually show you something you could write about,” Kali
Even if this was a prank, there was a shortage of weird hot girls in this town, and what did Kali have to lose? Those special effects were really professional too. Maybe this was a method actor from the city who could introduce her to important people. Kali decided to go along with it. “Yeah. I’m Kali. If you really are from space, why did you come here? This place sucks.” “I came to gather samples and intelligence about Earth culture. I live in the Intergalactic Demilitarized Zone and The Council has debated inviting your planet to the Terra Planet Association.
>NEWSMAGFEM<8FALL.21 OUTER SPACE PROM Eva designSpeiser,byCoral
Kali didn’t need a date to her senior prom. It was fine, just a silly high school dance. She was leaving Smalltownsville to go to the Big City the second this hellhole let her out.
“This backstory is really cool, I’m not gonna lie. S8D, what’s your real name? Sadie or something?” “If you would like to call me Sadie, that would be fine.” They talked more. Though, Kali could not tell you what about, because she mostly just stared at Sadie. She was so attractive, yet there was something scary and otherworldly about her. She spoke with precision and confidence, something most of these high school jokers lacked. The special effects makeup she had on was clearly professionally done. It looked like her skin was cracking away into a void on her cheek, and her hair shimmered like gasoline on pavement. There was no one in this whole town like her, no one even remotely close.
Kali knew her cynicism made her miserable sometimes. She never looked down on those other kids who would stay here, get jobs at the Pizza-Shack, get married, and die. Actually, she envied them for being satisfied with their offensively boring lives. But for some reason, prom was different from all the other school spirit garbage. The grossly over-romanticized high school rite of passage sunk its claws deep into her brain, and she became attached to a bullshit weird kid redemption arc: she would make those kids regret ever being mean to her. Not that anyone was actually mean to her, but that was a minor detail. To make her plan work, she needed to bring a shockingly cool girl to this uninspired, outdated beauty pageant and impress the whole school. She had her two tickets ready. But where was she supposed to find someone interesting in this two-bit town? Prom was tonight!
When she looked back, in its place was an exceedingly attractive girl with a few strange features, sitting there covered in black metallic slime.
Utnehmer
When she looked back, in its place was an exceedingly attractive girl with a few strange features, sitting there covered in black metallic slime. Before Kali could even exclaim in surprise, the girl “Hey,said,Ineeded three more nanoseconds to finish building this body. Why did you move? It’s not done!” Well, this was certainly unexpected. Kali didn’t really know what to say, so she said, “What the fuck? Is this some kind of prank? Who are you?”
“My name is Xa-S8D504. The Xa refers to my ancestral planet, Xanthanite, and the rest is my identification. I understand that on your terrestrial planet you have personal names instead, is that correct?”
“I can get you in, don’t worry. Historically people are weird about two girls going together, but my friends are pretty cool.”
Sadie curiously cocked their head, “That does sound very interesting. How do we go?”
9<THESPACEISSUE>FALL.21said, trying to seem nonchalant. “Oh? Thank you, Kali. What is it?” “Prom. It’s a high school mating ritual. Earthlings of age 16-18 parade around a hotel ballroom while their teachers watch. It’s sadistic, if you ask me.”
“We are not two girls, though? Maybe you are a girl, but I am just consciousness in a random body I built from fluid.” “Umm... okay, sure. My friend Ralph is also nonbinary, if thats what you’re saying. Doesn’t matter to me though, I just thought it would be good data to write down or something.” Kali kicked the ground, wondering why it mattered what this goopy alien thought of “Yes,her.you are probably right. Can you tell me anything else about “Well,it?”
this year’s theme for prom is ‘Outer Space,’” Sadie wrinkled their nose, “What is Outer Space? Everything is space? Outer of where?” “Like, the space around Earth?”
Sadie picked up on Kali’s speech patterns almost immediately, especially the use of the word “literally.” It turned out things on Xanthanite weren’t that different from Earth. There were boring teachers, recreational drugs, and a variety of social groups. Sadie was such a good actor and storyteller that Kali started wondering if they really were an alien. “What do you think?” Kali walked out of the bathroom wearing silver sequinned boot-cut pants and a sheer white button-down. She had her curly hair half up and half down, and put on extremely dark eye makeup. “Space-y enough?”
“Yeah, you want to see my notes?” They opened up a little black screen that said, “Humans are easily trusting. Naïve. Scared about owning their feelings. Easily manipulated by beauty and friendliness. Show compassion for things they have no association with. Can grow and change incredibly fast. Good at dancing.”
None of this was even about prom. Had Sadie been studying her this whole time? “Sadie, what is this? I thought you were studying the ritual of prom, not me!”
“So you are the only one of your kind like this? Then you must return to Xanthanite with me.”
“Sadie, did you listen to what I said? Also, I think you are a very convincing actor, but you can stop pretending to be an alien now.”
“Around Earth?” They laughed to themself, “You said this dance was a mating ritual? If you are supposed to have a romantic partner, why would you bring me?” “Ummm.. I don’t really have a romantic partner right now. If – if that’s what you’re asking.” Get it together, Kali. “Oh. So I would go as your partner?” There was not a hint of irony in Sadie’s entirely black eyes. Downplaying her excitement, she said, “Technically, yes. But, we are just going for research purposes. We don’t have to do any of the typical prom rituals if you don’t want to, we can just watch.” “No, I will go as your partner. It would be informative to participate.” Sadie was not backing down. “Ok wow. Great!” Kali’s mind was running a mile a minute. Mostly just to prove to herself it was real, she said, “So the first thing we need is outfits. People get really formal with their clothes, but as you know our theme is outer space, so it’s more about cool textures and silvery colors. I could get you a corsage, which is a tiny flower arrangement that shows commitment or something. I guess I need to formally ask you, which I can totally do. Actually, let me rephrase that. Sadie, will you come as my date to the Smallville High School prom?” “Yes. That was a redundant question.” “Cool, cool. That’s great,” breathe, Kali. “Okay. It’s in a few hours, so let’s go back to my house to get ready. We can sneak in through the window. ”
“I told you I came here to study Earth culture. Rituals are all the same, no matter what the textbooks will tell you. Once you have seen one, you have seen them all. But you are different from the beings of other planets. You took me in without question, and brought me to a dance that is paramount to your culture. Even my friends on my own planet wouldn’t do that for a stranger.”
Kali’s heart dropped. Sadie was giving her too much credit. “That’s so sweet, but I’m not sure I would have acted so nobly for a stranger. You seemed very familiar, and, I’m not going to lie, I think you are incredibly attractive, and that’s part of why I was so nice. Not all humans would do this for others. Sorry to disappoint you. ”
“I get that this is unbelievable to you, but I really am from another planet. Do you want me to show you my true form? Maybe we should go somewhere more private. Actually, right here is probably fine...”
“Prom. It’s a high school mating ritual. Earthlings of age 16-18 parade around a hotel ballroom while their teachers watch. It’s sadistic, if you ask me.”
The four went out the back door by the dumpsters and sat on the ground. They passed around three cigarettes before Ralph heard the melody of “(Crank That) Soulja Boy” and said, “Babe, this is my song! Let’s get back in there!” The couple left for the building, leaving Kali and Sadie alone. “So,” Kali asked nervously, “Gathering a lot of data?”
>NEWSMAGFEM<10FALL.21
“The word space means literally nothing to me. But you look beautiful. What am I going to wear?” Sadie said, as if they weren’t wearing the coolest black metallic jumpsuit in the world. “Honestly, your existing outfit is really cool. I love those black contacts too.” “Thank you. I forgot to make the white part of the eyes. And the iris, it seems.” Kali looked down at her phone. “Oh shit, it’s time. Okay, let’s sneak out the window again.” As the pair entered the decked out public school gym, Kali found she wasn’t annoyed by the dollar store silver streamers and paper maché planets. She went over to say hello to her friends Jewel and Ralph but she was really only looking at Sadie.
After Kali introduced Sadie to her friends as a method actor from the city, Sadie dragged Kali into the middle of the dance circle. Through the purple strobe lights and nicotine vapor haze, she watched Sadie dance. Their moves didn’t make any sense, but they looked happier than they had all day. Kali hated how much she was enjoying herself, but Sadie’s infectious energy permeated her built up exterior of cynicism. Maybe it was time to let go. If she let herself jump in a dance circle surrounded by her sweaty classmates and enjoyed it, would it be the end of the world? She would still leave them behind in the end, but just for tonight, she would pretend she was one of them. Kali lost herself to the rhythm, and they danced for what felt like hours but was really just 45 minutes. “You guys wanna go outside and smoke?” Jewel yelled over the thumping bass of “Gasolina.”
21.FALL11
“Here? Ummm… isnt it a bit soon for that—oh wait what the fuck—” Black viscous liquid was seeping out of Sadie’s body, which now looked like a corpse as it flopped onto the ground. The liquid sparkled in the moonlight, and slowly formed into the shape of letters. Sadie manipulated their liquid body to say “Hi Kali, it’s me.” Kali nearly passed out. So all that stuff Sadie said was true? Kali tried to reckon with this information while Sadie moved their liquid body back into the mouth of the human body in a way that was distinctly snake-like and impossible according to the laws of physics. When all the liquid was back inside the body, life came back into Sadie’s human eyes and they sat up and said, “Believe me now?” as if they had not completely altered Kali’s “Yeah…reality.
I mean.. That was so cool. So wait… when you asked me to come with you to Xanthanite, you mean a real planet? Like, we are actually going to outer space? That’s possible? ”
Maybe Kali didn’t need the city. She always said she wanted to get as far away as possible from Smalltownville High, and Xanthanite was winning in terms of distance. “Can I come back to Earth if I don’t like it? Or just to visit?”
“Any time you want, it takes about 2 hours.” “Okay,” She knew it was a rash decision, but when was the last time she was truly excited about something? When was the last time she enjoyed hanging out with anyone, alien or human alike? The choice was clear. “Yeah,“Okay?”I’ll go. Let’s ditch this shitbag of a town.” And they did.
“Yes, your planet is eons behind all the other planets. The rest of us get around quite easily. Coming to Xanthanite would be like taking a car ride. I know this is a lot to take in, but I would be happy if you came back with me. Only if you want to.” “What? But what about my life here? I’m just a human, could I really live there? “I insist. I could not stand to say farewell to you forever.”
Was Kali really considering running away with an alien? And on the first date? Kali avoided eye contact and looked up at the stars as she asked, “What’s it like on Xanthanite?”
“Our atmosphere is not that different from yours, but the skies are greenish. We have 8 moons. I live in an isodome in the woods.”
What is out there? What could be out there? Could we, as humans, ever survive out there?
Powerful governments such as the U.S and the Soviets exploited nations in the name of progress, and it didn’t stop in the 60s.
Fast forward nearly 60 years later the research shifted its priority to the survival of the human race. We see this theme throughout movies, usually following the rise of A.I. and the destruction of Earth due to technological advances such as in “The Terminator” or “The Matrix”, but who knew we would all suddenly become extra characters in our own sci-fi film.
Predominantly wealthy and white nations, particularly America, gained power through their colonial reign through colonization. It is no surprise, as an imperialist nation, that their interests continue to be strengthened by their willingness to abuse and take advantage of Latin, South-East Asian, and Arab nations.
NASA wrote in their article, Space Colonization, that the desire for inhabiting space is to test the limit of human endurance. While research into the unknown can be fruitful, it is necessary to understand that the desire for space exploration is rooted in colonization. NASA receives military funding to further America’s imperialistic power as established during the Cold War—why should we believe that has changed? Space technology created by Government-funded space agencies and private companies run by billionaires continue to colonize the spaces of indigenous populations to carry out their projects.
Space exploration is not for the benefit of the average person, nor would it ever be of importance to those suffering under the boot of capitalism.
In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX, an up-and-coming research and space technology and manufacturing company. In 2018, he sent one of his Teslas to space in order to encourage his audience to “try something new,” marketing the possibilities of space travel and living in space.
However, during the Cold War, America’s motivation for space travel was rooted in competition against other nations, particularly the USSR at the time. Especially since the Soviet Union followed communist ideology, the United States felt threatened and needed to claim outer space in order to demonstrate the superiority of democracy and capitalism. Essentially, NASA’s program was given military funding since the US government considered space to be an area for military potential.
Alexandra Baran, design by Lauren Leung Cramer
Space Travel. An extraordinary concept that has engulfed the entirety of the scifi genre and propelled decades of scientific research.
NASA has now announced that they are planning on installing lunar robots on the moon to begin extracting resources, reaching out to private companies in order to get investment on their latest project of planetary exploitation. The language surrounding the conversation is riddled with phrases such as “there’s good money on the moon” and “commercial potential on the moon,” revealing their priorities towards profit off of scientific exploration of space funded by the extremely wealthy that suits their interests.
Space research initially exploded in the 1950s when people from powerful international space stations, such as the US and the USSR, started venturing beyond our atmosphere. In the early years of research, the focus was about the progression of human knowledge of the universe that surrounds us and the endless possibilities that could explain our existence amongst billions of stars, planets, cosmic catastrophes and black holes.
For example, there have been ongoing protests against the constructing of a telescope on a sacred mountain in Hawaii. In the Mojave Desert some of the oldest research of space activities have been held, but predominantly low-income Black and Latino communities continue to suffer economically despite promises made by the US government. In the article Is Spaceflight Colonialism, author and researcher Harris Durrani states “the massive technological feats of spaceflight rely on imperial claims over natural resources. Luxembourg, a recent hub for commercial space, accumulated wealth by virtue of its history of mining, but marginalized communities with valuable raw materials have fallen prey to the ‘resource trap’ common to imperial encounters.”
For example, during the Cold War, Cuba was used as a playing field between America and the Soviet Union, nearly starting a nuclear war on their land. Similarly, the Soviets also took advantage of Afghanistan during the war but justified it by saying they brought science, research, technology, and sent an Afghan man into space.
>NEWSMAGFEM<12FALL.21 COLONIZATION OF SPACE
Shockingly, the possibility of space travel has become a luxury even for the Unfortunately,wealthy.dueto capitalism the majority of the population would not even begin to understand a luxury of space travel because many people’s basic needs cannot be fully afforded.
13<THESPACEISSUE>FALL.21
The colonization of space is sold to us as a sci-fi, cyberpunk, futuristic aesthetic with shiny, silver technology, buildings, and transportation. Sleek designs and a metal world is the idea of futurism that is sold to us in media, movies, novels, and fashion.
Another article in Space News discusses the Space Fence surveillance radar that has become operational as of 2020. Although the Space Fence is claimed to be used for detecting objects in space and launches on earth, the ability to cause digital warfare is growing meaning there is a possible future where all of our digital footprints as well as satellite footprints will be Euro-Americanthreatened.
nations have treated space advancement as bending space to our will and making it fit us and our needs.
Space travel, also being considered as a military project, is a violent endeavor. The possibility of digital warfare has increased dramatically through military and government operations. As stated in the article Is Spaceflight Colonialism: “Space provides a strategic military position from which to continue postcolonial violence on Earth, exacerbating inequalities between spacefaring countries and the so-called “Third World.”
Space exploration has become entirely centered on the survival of capitalist society. Space and its unknowns are not selfish to study but what motivates us as a society to study it is crucial to understand our intentions. Due to capitalism and imperialist control of space research and technology, space is no longer an extraordinary advancement, but rather a profitable gain. Space exploration is not for the benefit of the average person, nor would it ever be of importance to those suffering under the boot of capitalism. Why would space exploration ever be relevant to the everyday person if the cost is more than what a majority of the population could ever afford?
Space is critical for surveilling and enacting violence upon communities throughout the Third World, from Moroccan spy satellites over occupied Western Sahara, to remote sensing of Afghanistan and other strategic regions, to monitoring of the USMexico border: The United States spends $10 billion per year on publicly known space projects, but $15 billion on classified military activities.”
Luxury for the majority is the ability to put food on the table, have a roof over your head, provide for yourself and/or your family, even being able to own basic, necessary technology has become luxury. Being able to participate within society has become a luxury few can afford.
Space colonization seems like a human triumph against the impossible, but in reality it is the abuse of humans and the planet by those who have power and money.
Space travel is rooted in white colonial and capitalistic perspectives, this self-importance that has encouraged colonizers to take what they wanted.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, spent $5.5 billion to go to space for four minutes. His trip to the moon was not for any sort of space survival test for human advancement in space, but as a joy Spaceride.travel is not meant for the longevity of the human race, but rather a pissing contest for the rich. An article written for Forbes magazine states that within the next decade, the average cost of a tour to the International Space Station (ISS) will be $100,000 per Billionaireperson.
We already discussed that space travel is rooted in white colonial and capitalistic perspectives, this self-importance that has encouraged colonizers to take what they wanted from whomever they Spacewanted.colonization
As one of the richest countries in the world, America will not be the first to feel the consequences of climate change. At the same time, American propaganda has successfully shifted the blame of the global climate crisis onto the working class, as well as convinced people to participate in environmental nihilism.
>NEWSMAGFEM<14FALL.21
During the past year, the rise of space tourism had devastating environmental consequences. In an article about the Billionare Space Race, professor Eloise Marais states that “The carbon footprint of launching yourself into space in one of these rockets is incredibly high, close to about 100 times higher than if you took a long-haul flight,” Our rapidly deteriorating environment cannot handle the additional strain of privatized space travel.
By doing so, people are convinced they are helpless, accepting of death, content with the planet’s demise, making it much easier for private corporations to continue benefiting off of their participation in the environmental crisis. We already have a handful of billionaires planning their joy rides to space, and the number is only increasing. Therefore our resources are going into something that is not benefitting the majority, and, instead, drastically worsening our environmental crisis.
If one man spent $5.5 billion on one trip to space, imagine the cost of all the super rich following Bezos lead. All of that funding that could go into solving climate change, houselessness, better food production, or funding green energy.
The future is not going to exist for us with the continued demolition of the planet. Even if the ultra rich had enough resources to create breakthroughs in technology, the way we are abusing the planet’s resources to create space for ourselves beyond Earth will not buy us enough time against the climate crisis. Though the pursuit of scientific knowledge is undoubtedly important, privatized space travel companies pursue profit for the elite, rather than scientific development for the human race. The development of the human race under the perspective of the wealthy and powerful is based on idealizations of progress that ultimately ignore the realities that we face such as climate change, poverty, colonization, imperialism, and late stage capitalism. Even our technological advances are advancing violently with surveillance towards ‘enemies’ of capitalism and imperialism. Privatized space travel under capitalism is unfortunately a far cry from the egalitarian dreams of popular Sci-Fi media. We all buy into and participate in the harmful processes of capitalism and imperialism through our support of these projects and the consumerism that comes along with it. Choosing to ignore the issues of space exploration funded by billionaires will directly result in the ongoing imperialistic and environmental crimes.
may not look on par with the colonization of other people since space does not have people to colonize. As in the time of the Cold War, many countries in the global south were affected by America’s desire to defend and expand capitalism through imperialism, going to lengths of threatening nuclear war.
Elon Musk’s Mars colonization project, SpaceX, states on their website that they center their work around reusability. They plan on reducing the cost of space travel by using recovered technology from previous launches. But what are the costs of traveling to space?
5. HAND SANITIZER
2. SNOW Please, God, I am so sweaty yet so attached to Southern California.
3. REMEMBER THOSE FOAM PITS FROM YOUR THIRD GRADE GYMNASTICS CLASS? Yeah. 4. MOSS. This is my official campaign to introduce sleep pods (but make them Hobbit) on the hill surrounding Tongva Steps.
If UCLA students don’t start pulling their masks above their noses, we are going to have to resort to more drastic measures. Like hand sanitizer replacing Royce Quad. I trust that UCLA will take my very serious proposal into consideration and am looking forward to my bubble bath picnics next quarter. See you all at the sculpture foam pit!
When has adopting a quintessential frat tradition ever gone wrong? Replace the sculpture garden with literally just a ton of bubbles. Extra points for this hypothetical space being the most germ-filled, yet inherently clean turf this town has ever seen.
1. JUST A BIG OL’ BUBBLE BATH
CAN WE NOT USE THIS (SPACE) FOR SOMETHING MORE FUN THAN LAWNS?
Chloë Vigil, design by Grace Ciacciarelli
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As a fervent defender of cancel culture and a life-long killjoy, when I first stumbled upon TikTok’s anti-lawn movement, I adopted it with glee. Notorious for wasting both water and space, it’s easy to banish grass to a corner where cannibalistic actors and offensive Halloween costumes reside. Fuck a golf course, right? Unfortunately, when I am not being a pain in the ass, I do enjoy a nice little picnic, and UCLA’s many grass lawns are undeniably attractive for that purpose. Thus, I have decided to brainstorm a list of grass alternatives and their various pros and cons.
Writer: Joey Sigala Designer: Bela Chauhan Photographers: Cindy Quach, Joey Sigala Stylist: Joey Sigala Models: Julia Archila-Ponce, Tia Barfield THE DIGITAL INFLUENCE ON FASHION>NEWSMAGFEM<16FALL.21
Following the themes of cyberpunk and sustainability, I have included several looks that were achieved almost entirely through thrift-shopping or online thrift/second-hand stores like Depop, Facebook Marketplace, and Poshmark. Using 90s fashion archives as a reference, I was able to put together seven different looks that commemorate and appreciate the style. If trying to recreate the style, the main points of advice I have are as follows: Always go for sleepwear first! There are plenty of bralettes, corsets, and slip dresses that fit the style perfectly.
The fashion style originates from the late 80s and had ties to dystopian themes, futuristic literature and had a huge impact on how we perceive the y2k aesthetic due to its close ties to the birth of the internet. The underlying tones of the bold stylistic choices include a rejection of society in a conventionally punk way, but also incorporate futurism. In the past, the style incorporated political elements that upheld anarchy. In modern fashion, there is a duality that recycles the vintage style while also including contemporary interpretations of the evolution of technology. The cyberpunk style incorporates postmodern elements, most reminiscent of movies like “The Matrix.” Some staple pieces include leather trench coats, combat or platform boots, predominantly black or silver color palettes, and braided hair with eccentric accessories. Main themes include escapism and a utopian perspective of the future coming out of a digital revolution. The style has seen rising popularity due to online social media platforms like TikTok and Pinterest. It has also coincided with the hyper-pop movement that had a huge rise in popularity at the beginning of the pandemic. The growing interest in hyper-pop is largely credited to social media platforms, and the two have gone hand-in-hand in the rising number of people dressing according to the cyber aesthetic. The musical genre is best described as an avant-garde interpretation of pop with a lot of electronic overlays and high-pitched auto-tuned voices. Hyper-pop music and its listeners largely reflect the initial cyberpunk stylistic movement, and it makes sense that people are calling the genre a modern embodiment of cyberpunk. The original style had issues with sizeist representation that only portrayed thin frames and faces in conjunction with a lot of other styles that glorified unhealthy eating habits. It is important to note that although the style is coming back, we should never bring back the toxic culture of size exclusivity. The style is and should be available to all. Moreover, the style has roots in punk culture, and thus it should never be made inaccessible on the basis of cost. Most cyberpunk items can be upcycled or thrifted, as I will try to show later. Maintaining the style might be difficult because of rising prices in thrift stores. However, with some DIY accessories, any outfit can be dressed up to look cyberpunk.
The shift from near-complete online living to slowly re-emerging back to in-person society has altered views held about virtually everything. Most notably, it has altered the perspective held on virtuality and the cyber world. Many people grew used to the familiarity of technological hums to keep their world intact.
Scan for metallic or holographic items, usually located in the top Keepsection.an eye out for leather jackets, they are a huge staple for the style and play a huge part in any cyber-punk ensemble.
The style’s apocalyptic elements and use of tactical clothing insinuate the political nature of the style. The futuristic elements of the style are great aesthetically, but they also remind us as consumers that we must always remember to consider what lies ahead, particularly for our planet. The aesthetic quite literally cues us to look ahead because of the apocalyptic elements that are sewed into the style. As of now, the fashion industry takes enormous tolls on the environment, coming in as the secondlargest distributor of carbon emissions by the major corporations including brands like Zara and Forever 21. If we want to live according to the cyberpunk aesthetic/mantra/ideals, we must recognize and do our part to reduce the fashion industry’s harm to the environment and to workers. It is possible to achieve this style sustainably by directly shopping second-hand, shopping small sustainable businesses, or up-cycling.
Although the shift to online was not by choice, people became free from the confines of everyday life and were given the opportunity to exist in another world: cyberspace. The new identities that emerged have been predominantly influenced by the internet, leading to the re-emergence of old fashion niches from the last cyber revolution. At the end of the last millennium, there was a spike in cyberpunk and other cyber aesthetics in fashion. The lift of quarantine orders felt like the end of a millennium, and there have been close ties to the 90s and early 2000s. However, it is important to acknowledge that not everyone transitioned to a virtual platform, as some were required to continue working in-person throughout the quarantine period. The online shift to in-person affected those whose work allowed them to stay home. Nevertheless, the massive changes in styling techniques and aesthetics were widespread enough to be recognized in the fashion industry. The recent resurgence of the cyberpunk aesthetic has gone handin-hand with the rise of recycling y2k trends. The aesthetic can most simply be understood as “high-tech, low life,” and is characterized by futuristic outfits complete with a grunge twist.
Don’t buy more than you need. Getting one good piece at a time is always best when trying to build a well-curated wardrobe.
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Check the jewelry section! The accessories matter just as much as the clothing itself for this style, so it is crucial to keep an eye out for silver necklaces, belts, or rings to have something to accentuate any outfit.
The second outfit consists of a shimmery cardigan, a pleated mini skirt with buckle detail, and a leather trench coat. The silver cardigan was bought from Wasteland in San Francisco. The skirt was purchased from Goodwill in North Hollywood. The leather trench coat was ordered from Poshmark.
The sixth outfit is a cropped white long sleeve, a pinstripe vest, and gray scrubs. The cropped white top was purchased from the UCLA thrift store. The pinstripe vest came with a three-piece pinstripe set purchased from Savers in La Mirada. The scrubs were also purchased from Savers in La Mirada.
The seventh outfit consists of green and blue high-rise bathing suit bottoms, pinstripe pants, white gloves, a black tie-top, and a long blazer. The bathing suit bottoms were purchased from RJ Swim. The pinstripe pants were bought in a set from Savers in La Mirada. The white gloves were also purchased from Savers in La Mirada. The black tie-top was purchased from Goodwill in Downey. The black blazer was purchased from Goodwill in North Hollywood.
The fourth outfit involves a white, frilly button-up, a black slip, rainbow leg warmers, and a leather blazer. The white button-up was swapped at a clothing swap. The black slip dress and rainbow leg warmers were purchased from Savers in La Mirada. The leather blazer was purchased from Goodwill in San Diego.
*Continue reading to learn more about my thrifting process and more details on each outfit. *
The third outfit includes a silver silk button-up, a pleated striped black mini skirt, a garter waist belt, white knee-high stockings, and one pinstripe blazer. The silver button-up was bought from Melrose Vintage, a locally owned vintage shop in Whittier. The pleated mini skirt was purchased from Facebook Marketplace. The garter waist belt was purchased from Savers in La Mirada. The white knee-high stockings were purchased from Savers in La Habra. The pinstripe blazer was purchased from Goodwill in Downey.
The first outfit put together is composed of a pleated jean mini skirt, a cropped graphic muscle tee, and a luminescent creamcolored coat. The jean mini skirt and cropped graphic muscle tee were both thrifted from Savers in La Mirada. The coat was bought used, from Depop originally from I.Am.Gia.
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The fifth outfit consists of a green and blue bathing suit top, a mesh button-up, and leather chaps. The bathing suit top was purchased from a small business in New York called RJ Swim. The mesh top was purchased from Wasteland in Los Angeles. The leather chaps were purchased from Savers in La Mirada.
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Vanessa Diep, design by Coral Utnehmer
From endless rows of white picket fences and perfectly trimmed lawns, to clearly defined social roles on the basis of identity, mass suburbanization in the past century has fundamentally transformed American life in wide-ranging ways that we likely don’t consider, even as a majority of Americans now live in suburbs. While all the details describing the consequences of American suburbanization are far too expansive to get into in this article, the overarching experience of American suburbia is principally rooted in how suburbs occupy space, based on principles of separation. This is manifested in social and cultural relations, as well as physical suburban sprawl. Transformative to America’s urban development and evolution of societal norms, suburbanization impacts our daily lives, from the ways we commute to work, to the kinds of
communities we live in. Through the lens of cultural and physical space, let’s take a look at the invasion of American suburbia.
Which communities were to be excluded?
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AMERICAN SUBURBIA: DEFINED BY SPACE
In its origins, the suburbs were built in the peripheries of the urban city as a space of “escape” from the sight of industrialization and capitalism’s consequences, more specifically, the plight of the working class. The clean suburb was placed in contrast to
The American suburb, at its core, was created as a cultural and societal space based on notions of inclusion and exclusion, as well as a specific ideal of the American Dream in which one could work their way up and out of the city, into the affluent suburbs. What kinds of norms, what kinds of institutions, and what kinds of people belonged in the idyllic, so-called American Dream?
the dirty cities, an almost utopian place away from the noise, pollution, crime, and poverty of the industrial city. As such, American suburbia was built upon an ethos of separation of space, as the “spatial embodiment of the middle-class American Dream,” as described by Becky Nicolaides and Andrew Wiese in “The Suburb Reader.” Given this principle of separation, we can clearly already see the tension between the ideal of an American Dream and the reality of who the American Dream in the suburbs was really made for.
The elite suburban ideal, as a space of homogeneity, separation from the undesirable, and the end goal to one “pulling themselves up by the bootstraps,” excludes marginalized groups, who are actively disadvantaged by our institutions on the basis of factors such as class and race. As stated in “The Suburb Reader,” scholars of political economy through a Marxist lens describe society as a spatial phenomenon, with social spaces like suburbs being a direct outcome of economic organization, in this case, an economy organized around capitalism. In “Capitalist Development and the History of American Cities,” David Gordon views the creation of suburbia through the lens of class conflict, pointing to the growing labor unrest and unionization of workers in the city that pushed the more affluent to create their own space outside the urban core. As such, suburbs became a space to escape the consequences of capitalism, rather than actually work to solve its problems. The vision was to segregate the elites from the non-elites, the privileged from the non-privileged. Further, in order to perpetuate the ideology of capitalism, the affluent suburban ideal became a means of reinforcing the idea that one can simply “work hard” in a capitalist society in order to gain social mobility. The separation of class in the advent of suburbia cannot be discussed in full without examining its inextricable ties to the separation of race. It is worth noting the disproportionate overlap between the working class and the Black population, given the large population of Black workers in the urban city as a result of the Great Migration. The suburb was the destination for the infamous “white flight” phenomenon, referring to the large-scale migration of the white population from the racially diverse city, to the racially homogenous suburbs. Only those who had the wealth and means to move to the affluent suburbs were able to.
The suburbs’ principle of separation of space is further reflected in how suburbia occupies physical space, in its endless rows of identical homes with turf lawns, wide asphalt streets, enormous parking lots, and vast strip malls forming the suburban wasteland. In a phenomenon known as suburban sprawl, suburban development stretches across large expanses of land with little regard for urban planning; the massive occupation of physical space is where many of the fundamental problems of suburbs lie.
Among rows and rows of identical houses and turf lawns, one often finds themselves with the same cars, family structures, skin tone, and more as their neighbors.
However, the white elitist suburban endeavor was not the reality, as diversity has long existed within the suburbs. As previously mentioned, David Gordon argues for a view of suburbanization through class conflict and labor unrest. In this sense, we can see how factory and manufacturing jobs moved to the suburbs as well. Factory owners came in search of inexpensive land, lower taxes, and most importantly, a more easily controllable labor force, once again demonstrating the suburbs as a space for escape from the consequences of capitalism. With the movement of jobs also came the migration of African Americans, immigrants, and white workers. The suburbs were more diverse than the typical image of suburbia, yet there is still an ethos of separation of space by race and class. Marginalized groups settled into their own enclaves, separate from the affluent neighborhoods, creating spaces of “segregated diversity” in the peripheries of the suburbs.
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In contrast to being a space for one to work hard and achieve one’s greatest form of individualism, the suburbs are rather a space of homogeneity and conformity. Among rows and rows of identical houses and turf lawns, one often finds themselves with the same cars, family structures, skin tone, and more as their neighbors. Homogeneity and conformity were accepted and desired in suburban spaces, despite its aspiration as a place to express individualism. This is further reinforced by American institutions, such as in recommendations from the Federal Housing Administration’s Underwriting Manual, which encouraged the suburban paradigm of socially and racially homogeneous spaces. In regards to the environmental side of suburban America, which will be explored later, we see drastic reductions in biodiversity, in exchange for endless acres of neatly-trimmed lawns.
Once again, we see how the suburban ideal did not include marginalized groups such as Black and working class people; the image of the suburban ambition in our culture was intended for white people. Ads of classic American suburbia depicted white families with white neighbors, conveying the implicit idea that marginalized groups were not included in the suburban design, a concept reinforced by federal policy. The development of American suburbia based on a principle of separation, under the guise of the “American dream” for the all-American family, molded the way we view post-World War II suburban affluence: through whiteness and for white people. That is, the belief in the economic right of white people to homeownership and the American dream justified white suburban prosperity and privilege based in segregation and inequality. Through exclusion in suburbia, we see not only the upholding, but also the construction of whiteness, as suburbs shape how we view the all-American family today.
Given that white people saw the movement of non-white families and workers into the suburbs in search of prosperity as an invasion of the romantic suburban ideal, 20th century suburbia became the center for government-codified segregation, whose consequences remain today. Most prominently, we see how Black people were institutionally barred from home ownership in the suburbs through policies such as redlining, in which banks would discriminate in lending based on “risk assessment” of racial groups, with non-white groups deemed as high-risk and thus unworthy of loans for home ownership. Moreover, through practices such as racially restrictive covenants, in which legally binding agreements prevented buyers from reselling their homes to someone of a different race, suburbs were further constructed into spaces of racial homogeneity and exclusion.
The way in which suburbs take up land space also has considerable ramifications for the environment. Given that it’s essentially impossible not to drive in the suburbs, we see a high contribution of greenhouse gases as a result of suburban sprawl.
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Further, driving is an especially dangerous form of transportation, given how suburban streets take up space. As wider streets do little to slow down drivers, they encourage more aggressive driving, thus increasing the likelihood of accidents occuring. According to data collected by the World Health Organization, the United States has far more proportional traffic deaths than other wealthy, less suburban countries. Moreover, suburbs built for driving have consequences for health and physical activity as well, as people are encouraged to drive places rather than walk.
The very image of the green lawn that is meant to represent the clean suburbs is in fact what contributes to its deterioration.environmental
Low-density suburbs means that more land must be cleared in order to make room for suburban development. Roads for driving take up a large proportion of suburbia, with the U.S. having significantly higher areas of road per 100,000 people than other countries. Land is converted to asphalt to build massive parking lots, acres of trees are chopped down to clear space for rows of low-density housing, and subsequently, there is less greenery per area than urban regions. The biodiversity of the land is replaced by expanses of neatly-trimmed green lawns and turf, resulting in suburbs less able to absorb the already great amount of carbon emissions put in the air by driving. Thus, we find further contradictions within the suburban ideal: the very image of the green lawn that is meant to represent the clean suburbs is in fact what contributes to its environmental deterioration.
One of the greatest consequences of the (lack of) urban planning and low-density in the suburbs is little walkability and immense reliance on cars. In essence, suburbs are built around driving as a main source of transportation, with 76% of Americans commuting to work by driving alone and the United States driving far more than any other country in the world. Suburbs often have larger driveways, wider streets, and fewer sidewalks, utilizing space to make bigger roads for cars to drive, rather than planting trees to make sidewalks more walkable and protected. One is likely to drive even a short distance down the street as a consequence of the lack of walkability. Suburban regions of such low-density and high reliance on cars subsequently require massive parking lots, another way in which suburban development overtakes great amounts of space.
In fact, as revealed by a UC Berkeley study, suburbs contribute to more greenhouse gas emissions per person than urban areas do, dispelling the myth of the clean suburb versus the dirty city. Here, we see how the suburbs act as an optimal space of wealth and prosperity in our collective consciousness, rather than an actual well-planned area to live.
In another example of suburbia’s principle of separation, we see the segregation of use of land in suburban regions, with residential areas largely separated from commercial areas. Thus, one must often drive miles to reach the nearest grocery store, school, place of work and more. Workers must be able to afford a car and commute to work as a result of job sprawl creating farther and farther places of employment, disproportionately affecting poor and minority residents. With inadequate investment in public transit, cars are now an extremely expensive necessity.
Moreover, one living in the suburbs would likely find themselves in a large, single-family home separate from their neighbors, divided by expansive manicured lawns, containing individual spaces for each family member and each household function (such as laundry) within the home. In contrast to condensed apartments in the city, more energy is required to heat and power these larger homes, which requires the burning of more fossil fuels. Things that would take up spaces within the suburban home would be found as shared amenities in the city, such as laundromats, thus a far less inefficient use of energy. Further, as a result of low-density suburban sprawl, suburbs become too spread out for its relatively small populations to pay for. With lower density areas, there are higher per capita infrastructure costs, such as having more pipes to carry water to farther places. As an economic consequence, suburbia takes up space in our budgets and tax revenue, utilizing money that could otherwise be used to invest in communities, welfare, and infrastructure. Suburbia has overwhelmingly taken over space in our culture, social relations, policy, urban planning, and more, cementing its place as a fundamental and transformational aspect of modern American life. The ways in which suburbs exist both as a societal space and a physical space express the foundational ethos of separation that profoundly influences everything from the communities we live in to how far we have to go to get groceries. While created as a space to supposedly represent the ideal “American dream,” further examination demonstrates the roots of suburbia as a space of exclusion meant to prop up whiteness, as well as hollow “American values,” while also existing physically in our modern landscape as an inefficient way of living a prosperous life.
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Kelsey Chan design by Hailey Lynaugh
Afrofuturism is a genre that combines ideas of space, technology, science fiction, and Blackness. Through the themes of technology and space, Afrofuturist art, literature, and thinkers conceive notions of the future in which the Black identity is central. As James Edward Ford III defines in his article “‘Space Is the Place’: Afrofuturist Elegy in Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars”: “Afrofuturists are literary, visual, and sonic artists and intellectuals who do not simply assert that black people will exist in the future (although this assertion, in itself, counters the discourse of extinction that has trailed black folk since Emancipation until now). Afro-futurists treat blackness as a way of envisioning futures.” (Ford, 161). Though the term “Afrofuturism” is attributed to Mark Derry, who coined the phrase in the early 90’s, Afrofuturism as an idea and genre took off after professor and author Alondra Nelson founded an online community centered around Afrofuturism in 1998 (Ranft, 76). It was through this online platform that “members discussed issues related to technology, racial identity, diaspora, activism, the future, and various other topics.” (Ranft, 76). How fitting that a movement and framework that centers around technology and conceptions of the future would be conceived in an online space. But, why is Afrofuturism important? How does the genre work to imagine new spaces for the Black community?
First, Afrofuturism uses themes of science fiction and technology in order to create speculative works, ways of envisioning new spaces and futures, which lends itself to creative mediums like poetry, music, and other forms of art. In the poetry collection “Life on Mars,” poet Tracy K. Smith utilizes the imagery of outer space in order to comment on past, present, and future ideas of the Black identity in space and society. It is through the medium of poetry that Smith is able to create a nuanced vision of the future through the lens of race, a future in which “distinction will be empty” (Smith). Smith takes inspiration from her father, who was an engineer that worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, and science fiction pop culture, as evident in her poem “My God, It’s Full of Stars.”
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In “My God, It’s Full of Stars,” Smith references Stanley Kubrik’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey” and actor Charlton Heston, who was known for his roles in popular science fiction films such as “Planet of the Apes” and “Soylent Green.” Smith writes through the perspective of the characters in these science fiction films, creating a perception of outer space that is wonderful, fictional, and at times, terrifying. For example, Smith uses language like “apocryphal white” and “an aurora of orgasmic light,” contrasting these ideas with darkness in order to emulate the spectacular, cinematic, experience of Hollywood’s outer space. It is through the fantasization of outer space that Smith is able to ground the idea of cosmic horror in the stanzas surrounding these pop culture references. For example, the first section of this poem focuses on the end of the world, “while the father storms through adjacent rooms/ Ranting with the force of Kingdom Come,/ Not caring
In addition, Afrofuturist works often reference the past as a way to build a foundation on which the future rests. For instance, in the article “Creating and Imagining Black Futures through Afrofuturism,” Grace Gipson cites a tweet referencing the city of Detroit that reads “The future was here…” (Gipson, 97). This tweet encapsulates the idea of the past being a foundation on which conceptions of the future can be cultivated. Gipson further considers: “The city of Detroit acts as a kind of time machine in that it has always been a site rich with ideas about Black futurity, and different eras of Detroit’s history have proposed different futures.” (Gipson, 97). Specifically, Gipson is referring to Dr. Martin Luther King’s June 1963 speech given at Cobo Hall and Motown Records, the first Black-owned record label, both located in Detroit and important developments for Black history. Here, the spatial is conflated with the temporal; these two moments in history become superimposed over this single physical location. The entire genre of science fiction, in fact, relies heavily on this idea of “retrofuturism” (think the aesthetic of “The Incredibles”). The speculative future is created through the lens of the past. Take Smith’s references to her father’s work on the Hubble Space Telescope and to science fiction pop-culture; by looking at these retro ideas of the future, Smith is able to create this liminal space in the present, which stands between the past’s conceptions of the future and the actual future. This overlapping of past and present is particularly important in Tracy K. Smith’s work. We see an example of this in her poem “Life on Mars.” The poem is broken up into nine sections that differ from each other narratively— from theories on space from a character named Tina, to a first person perspective recounting of a haunting memory. In the sections about Tina, Smith writes in the first person, presenting Tina’s beliefs about space and the universe to the reader. Then, the next section is a flashback to a newscast of a girl who was kept in a basement. Two sections later, the poem becomes a memory. Not only does the poem jump around narratively, it also jumps around temporally. Through the collation of memory and present reality, Smith is able to create a conception of outer space as a canvas for the future. In the eighth section of the poem, Smith’s lines get more fragmented as the poem transitions to outer space. The lines now zoom out from the specifics of previous sections, into space, looking at Earth from an outside perspective. Though hinting at a future outside of Earth, the poem reminds us of humanity’s history on this planet: “The earth we ride in disbelief./ The earth we plunder like thieves./ The earth caked to mud in the belly.”
In order to imagine the future, there must be a recognition of the past and the present. Outer space is not just a clean slate to paint a new future devoid of context and history, we must go into this new future with our histories and our wrong-doings in mind in order to create a new space.
Sun Ra, another prominent Afrofuturist, popularized the phrase “space is the place” through his film and album of the same name. But with the reality of the near future of space travel, can space still be the place? The obsession with “exploring,” and thus exploiting, new spaces and the movement of physical bodies into these spaces is inherently a function of colonialism and presents a threat to the core concept of outer space in Afrofuturism. In Afrofuturism, outer space represents an unknown, a new potentiality on which the future can be projected. Through space colonization, outer space no longer represents a speculative space. The socio-political and economic situation of our reality will be imposed onto the new spaces we invade; outer space will merely be another extension of our current spaces. The new advent of space travel is a test, a test to see if we choose to repeat our mistakes or to reconcile our history with our future.
Sources: Creating and Imagining Black Futures through Afrofuturism (Grace Gipson) “Space Is the Place’: Afrofuturist Elegy in Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars (James Edward Ford III)
21.FALLanymore what might snap us in its jaw.” The end of the world does not concern itself with humanity— it is a cold, unfeeling, Revelations-like end. A truly horrifying idea of outer space and the end of human space. In the final part of her poem, Smith recounts memories of her father’s work on the Hubble Space telescope. It is after stanzas about meditations on the spectacle of outer space and the end of the world that this last piece of her poem circles back to Earth. Smith’s description of her father exists in stark contrast to the rest of the poem. Even with the vast expanse of space and time, there are still the small pieces of meaningful reality, as illustrated by the description of her father. It is through both the aspects of speculative outer space and reality that Smith reconciles the idea of outer space as a stage for a new future. Though outer space is unknown, unfeeling, and expansive, the existence of Black bodies in this speculative space is not without history, experience, love and memory.
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The Afrofuturist Poetry of Tracie Morgan and Tracy K. Smith (Erin Ranft) “Life on Mars” Tracy K. Smith
Though the interest in outer space travel started decades ago, traveling to, and living in, outer space is increasingly becoming a reality with the recent growing interest in commercialized space travel. However, there must be the consideration of how the present reality of space travel interacts with Afrofuturism’s ideas of outer space as a canvas for new and imagined futures. By considering these two ideas together, there is an invasion of theoretical space.
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