Becoming Visible, Being a Thorn, and Seeking Justice

with Zackary Drucker, Ahree Lee, Sandra de la Loza, and Jaklin Romine. Moderated by Mario Ontiveros. 

In this episode, the artists discuss the ethical pitfalls and radical possibilities of visibility. Sandra de la Loza acknowledges that we are living “in a moment where we're overly surveilled and overly visible” with A.I., facial recognition software and the pervasiveness of social media. She reminisces about the magically transformative spaces of the “underground.”  She asks a really challenging question: “How do we create structures where we can have more honest, more intimate, more vulnerable conversations?” 

On the flip side of “becoming visible,” they also talk about erasure and invisibility. Access is not universal, and even the most ethically-minded efforts can still be exclusionary. For example, to the disabled body. Jaklin Romine reminds us that many progressive institutions and centers often they lack awareness that disabled bodies are denied entry to their spaces. She says, “Any space that is not physically accessible to the disabled body is not radical.”

This episode was recorded in February 2020, about a month before the COVID-19 pandemic caused LA to shut down and before the mass uprisings in the name of racial justice and against police brutality.
Learn more about the artists and the series here:

https://www.x-traonline.org/online/episode-7-becoming-visible