NASA’s Artemis 2 program aims to return humans to the Moon by 2025 to prepare for missions to Mars: the Red Planet has become the symbol of “A New Geological Frontier.” Inspired by the future of space research, this course will discuss the role of territorial exploration (and control) in defining American national identity from the nineteenth century till today. At the same time, it will analyze how some images produced in the scientific, utilitarian, and expansionist contexts of these explorations boosted landscape conservation and environmental protection. For instance, Apollo photographs of planet Earth from outer space taken in 1968/72 are considered icons of global environmentalism. Using a variety of visual sources – including paintings, illustrations, maps, aerial photographs, and satellite imagery – this class offers insights into the tensions and relationships between landscape and land use, wilderness and overexploitation, environmental monitoring and surveillance, climate techno-optimism and imperialist ideology.
- Trainer/in: Noemi Quagliati