After Spaceship Earth

An expansive look at the contemporary artists confronting, challenging, and reimagining R. Buckminster Fullers techno-utopianism to envision sustainable futures Architect and designer R. Buckminster Fullers (18951983) concept of Spaceship Earth, one of the most powerful metaphors of the twentieth century, imagines our planet as a monumental vehicle sustained by the interdependence of human technologies and natural ecologies. In this book, Eva Daz explores that metaphor through the work of contemporary artists from around the world who grapple with Fullers project to promote the equitable distribution of global assets through design, and with the technocratic euphoria of his era. Beginning with a focus on Fullers iconic geodesic dome design and moving to the extraplanetary implications of his ideas, Daz illuminates how artists including John Akomfrah, Mary Mattingly, Trevor Paglen, Jacolby Satterwhite, Hito Steyerl, and many others draw from Fullers 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. Daz 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 Fullers concept for todays world-builders, posing vital questions of its usefulness and limits.