After Spaceship Earth

Beginning with a focus on Fuller’s iconic geodesic dome design and moving to the extraplanetary implications of his ideas, Díaz illuminates how artists including John Akomfrah, Mary Mattingly, Trevor Paglen, Jacolby Satterwhite, Hito Steyerl, and many others draw from Fuller’s mode of experimental design research to create provocative alternatives to corporate control and surveillance. These artists probe the space “race” and colonization as powerful means to readdress histories of violence and racial inequity. Díaz critiques the ecological costs of technological innovation and the role that techno-utopianism has played in political, economic, gender, and racial domination. Highlighting Afrofuturism, ecofeminism, and new ideas of citizenship, After Spaceship Earth conveys the vital afterlives of Fuller’s concept for today’s world-builders, posing vital questions of its usefulness and limits.