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OTRO MUNDO NOS ESPERA
2017 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. Produced with students from Chicana/Chicano Studies Department at San Diego State University during Spring and Fall 2017, this multi-media project took shape out of two courses considering the role cultural production plays in fomenting political dialogue, honing in on the ways art can construct alternative frameworks to contemplate the San Diego/Tijuana border region. The culmination of collaborative processes undertaken by students became the basis of performative sci-fi-inspired gestures of Otro Mundo Nos Espera (OMNE). The title, which translates to “another world awaits us”, is reference to the possibility of beginning to craft a better, more just, more inclusive world through the realm of art and culture, and more specifically through/in dialogue with the “other” – with those who appear to be different from us. To this end, OMNE set out 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. Collaborations with SDSU students in the Spring semester, included a special iteration of Dialogue in Transit, broadcasting a sonic journey through border spaces near and far. As with previous iterations, the transmission broadcast via pirate-radio to the San Ysidro Port of Entry from inside the "Cog•nate Cruiser", as we waited in line to cross the border from Mexico into the United States. |
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For our culminating Spring-semester activities, we installed a radio + listening-station during the ArtPOP! Festival at SDSU to share short stories, interviews and musical selections exploring the notion of “alien” encounters in relation to the US/Mexico border, and on May 1, we organized a "May Day" station inviting students to reflect on questions of home, identity and otherness.
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The Golden Record (TJ/SD)
During the Fall semester, our collaborations with SDSU Chicana/o Studies students took cues from 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. The record, along with documentation of previous interventions were on view as part of the "Otro Mundo Nos Espera" exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego from November 2017 - January 2018. You can listen to a selection of audio produced, pirate-broadcast and pressed in vinyl as part of "Otro Mundo Nos Espera" below:
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