Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

For members of the African diaspora, design and other methods of creative expression have been an exploration of the trauma of our abduction and continental separation. Although the labor and bodies of slaves assisted in furthering the wealth of western society, the economic, cultural, and technological contributions of those slaves and their descendants have often been omitted from Western history books. Furthermore, poor record-keeping during African captivity has made it impossible for most to make any valid claim to specific cultural African linage. We have simultaneously been rendered less American due to the captive status of our Ancestors, and less African due to the same captivity. But how does this reality evolve once humans are capable of living off-planet? The act of teaching futures is a quest that challenges us not only to anticipate but shape the unknown. This must involve not only forward speculation but deep consideration of past methods of developing knowledge. The interest of my research is to explore how life in space will impact the creative expressions of people of color. How will the descendants of the African Diaspora wrestle with identity and humanity while being further separated from Africa, and completely separated from earth? This paper uses teased forecasts of technology as well as post-colonist writings of Franz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, and Edward Said to speculate the future of an African-Lunar Design aesthetic.