Borderland Utopias: Creative Engagements at the End of the World

This lecture explores the paradigmatic relationship between notions of utopia and the apocalypse as mobilised by the architectures and infrastructures at Boca Chica. The small town north of the border with Mexico has become the launch site for a planned colonisation of Mars led by Elon Musk. Core to the development of the site is the eschatologies of Silicon Valley: utopian narratives which promise to technologically augment, foster and optimise life while requiring the violent destruction of the status quo and a blind, faith-based adherence to the vision of a charismatic prophet. At a time of multiple crises when the eschatologies of Silicon Valley are hailed as the answer to avoid the end of times, Borderland Utopias aims to contextualise them in their geographical location. The lecture suggests that understanding the geography of the Mexico/United States borderlands is crucial in making visible the historical processes of settler colonialism that inform the contemporary biopolitics of Silicon Valley, which, in their imaginings of rescuing humanity from a dying planet, do so by excluding and erasing gendered and racialised bodies. It discusses  a “feral atlas” (assembled by mapping, drawing, photography, storying) which makes visible the indigenous experiences and imaginations of end-of-worlds and utopia that have taken place in Boca Chica. By bringing forth these complex subjectivities, often marginalised, hidden and written off by the official narratives, Borderland Utopias aims to offer them as alternative templates for an understanding of the end of the world that creates equitable futures.

Luis Hernan is a professor in Spatial Narratives at the University of Sheffield. His research, which has moved from the digital to the speculative humanities, is inspired by Latin-American literary traditions and explores the interface between stories, narrative and architecture as central to the way that we inhabit and make sense of architecture and urban space. He is particularly interested in the political, social and spatial aspects of the future, examining the continuities of Empire and colonialism in ideals of progress, modernity and utopia. His work in the last few years has focused on the architectures and infrastructures in the borderlands between Mexico and the United States, inspired by utopia and the end of worlds. Luis’ research is transdisciplinary, combining critical theory with creative practice and practices as a photographer, poet and fiction writer in parallel to his critical scholarship. He is involved in a wide range of feminist and decolonial initiatives.