ALIENS belong in Space: A rally to stop the Extraterrestrial Invasion

‘To make truths is not only to make worlds, but also to make worlds in defence or fear that such worlds “could be” unmade.’
Sara Ahmed, The politics of fear in the making of worlds

Emotions are a psychopolitical (Byung-Chul Han) tool of affecting, manipulating and steering behaviour with and through the body. Fear, in particular plays a role of differentiating between those that are allowed, and afforded, empathy while denying others the same privilege. Fear disqualifies some bodies from being perceived as human.

How we call each other affects how we relate to each other. Aliens, thugs, criminals, pet-eaters, snakes that bite… the politics of fear rely on discourse of risk, terror, and violence, unsubstantiated by statistics.

As part of my Master thesis on exposing the use of fear through the means of theater and performance, four performers enacted a political rally in front of the Harvard Science Center, Cambridge and collected signatures to "build a wall around the Earth", while reciting speeches that were written using quotes from President Harry S. Truman, President George W. Bush, President George H. W. Bush, President Donald Trump, Senator Joseph McCarthy and others. In line with the conspiracy theory of the American Government hiding aliens in Area 51, some words (referring to immigration to the US or the Red Scare) were substituted and some sentences added, but most of the speeches remained the same.

Concept and script: Kasia Zarzycka
Performance: Kasia Zarzycka, Varya Lyapneva, Chinyere Obasi, Hugo Hinze
Poster Design: Victoria Amani Mwaniki Kishoiyian
Photos by: Katrina Frei-Herrmann

If you’d like to read some of the original speeches visit: https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches

If you’d like to learn more about the rhetorics in American politics visit: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/11/20/how-we-reported-on-rhetoric-about-immigrants-in-the-2024-election