It is a reflection that is based (almost) entirely on a neologism: “dereguarding”. At first glance, one might think that the definition of this new verb would be understood as “turning away one’s eyes” – almost: not seeing. But not at all: “dereguarding” would rather mean deconstructing what is placed before our eyes to reconstruct its genesis – and answer some rather natural questions: who shows us what, how, and why?
You can dereguard many things. Joël Vacheron has decided to apply this method to representations of space conquest and make it into a rather striking book: Cosmovisions. The initial hypothesis of this sociologist, trained at the University of Lausanne and now a researcher and teacher at ECAL, is: “At a time when the climate crisis continues to worsen, [the] promethean vision [of space conquest] presents the exploration of the cosmos as the only viable alternative for humanity. However, especially in the post-war American context, space programs reflect a darker legacy in terms of colonialism, extractivism, and supremacism.”
