Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
2021
Mixed-media installation
Eight-channel sound interface, black glass, wooden debris, two-channel video (color, sound, 10 min.)
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow is informed by a counter-investigation examining a unique case of transboundary sonic violence at the easternmost edge of the Mexican side of the Mexico-US border, where the waters of the Rio Bravo/Grande River meet the Gulf of Mexico. In this scenario, El Campo Pesquero de Playa Bagdad, Tamaulipas, Mexico—a marginalized and underserved fishing community—is confronted by a new episode in the industrialization of outer space. With the current development of SpaceX’s spaceport two miles north of the border in Boca Chica, Texas (US), Playa Bagdad now lives with the detrimental acoustic shock waves produced by Starship/Superheavy—the largest spacecraft ever built—. Sound in this context travels across the border with enough potency to act as a mobilizing force impacting the body, the biosphere, and the rudimentary architecture of the community.
Ironically, Playa Bagdad now stands in the front row to witness an unprecedented techno-political spectacle while being geopolitically erased by the state agencies that permit SpaceX operations in the region. Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow comprises a wooden debris structure resembling Playa Bagdad’s vernacular architecture. A monolithic, glass-made eight-channel sound device hanging from the structure emits a voice-over reflecting on the paradoxes of how ascending from the Earth is conceived as an absolute form of progress. In the final sequence of a two-channel video documenting a Starship/Superheavy launch, the black box reproduces the engines’ roar, creating a sonic atmosphere of vulnerability reverberating through the wooden debris structure.
Installation View (Big Medium, Austin, US; Museo de Arte, Ciudad Juárez, MX; and Mario Kreuzberg, Basel, CH).