Alterrestrial: planetary experience and cosmological freedom
Without seeking to produce an artificial unity between the privileged terrestrials and the damned of the Earth, I propose the notion of alterrestrial, which does not designate a new identity, but a common refusal of the Order of the world. ‘Alterrestrial’ qualifies a form of subjectivity which, without denying the need to take care of terrestrial attachments, claims a cosmological freedom, a sovereign detachment with a view to a revolutionary politics. In this article, I seek out the form of planetary experience the more capable of revealing this freedom and show that music can help shape a planetary subjectivity that would not be trapped in the sedentary nature of any Earth-bound identity. As a cosmological art par excellence, an invitation to deterritorializing, music can foil the climatic and security traps of the Capitalocene by making room for the unknown – for the love of the unknown without which the world is pointless.
Authors
- Frédéric Neyrat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3882-5074)
Institutions
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cultural Geographies
- Published
- 2025-04-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/14744740251326897
- Primary Topic
- Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00