It is a reflection that rests (almost) entirely on a neologism: “dereguarder”. 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: “dereguarder” would rather deconstruct what is placed in our view in order to reconstruct its genesis – and answer some quite natural questions: who shows us what, how, and why?
We 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 first hypothesis of this sociologist, trained at the University of Lausanne and now a researcher and teacher at the 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 heritage in terms of colonialism, extractivism, and supremacy.”
