Cronoscopia: A Digital Observatory of Latin American Futures
During her time as a Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers University, Ariela Parisi was awarded the Digital Humanities Seed Grant from the Rutgers Digital Humanities Initiative. With this grant, she developed Cronoscopia, a digital platform that explores the intersections of memory, speculation, and future imaginaries in Latin America. The platform serves as a space for critical engagement with speculative aesthetics, environmental justice, and alternative world-building practices, expanding the dialogue on temporality, technology, and the speculative as both critical and artistic methods.
Cronoscopia functions as a living laboratory for creators, scholars, students, and anyone drawn to the craft of imagining future scenarios. The platform invites writers, filmmakers, artists, and thinkers from around the world to showcase their work, expanding the dialogue on temporality, technology, and the speculative as both critical and artistic practices. This initiative fosters broader discussions on how marginalized communities in Latin America use artistic expression to reclaim agency over their futures, addressing urgent issues such as environmental degradation and human rights.
The platform builds upon Parisi’s research on retro-speculation, a concept that examines how contemporary Latin American cultural productions—performances, films, and literature—engage with the past to construct alternative visions of the future. Her project demonstrates how memory practices in the region actively contribute to rethinking ecological and social justice movements.
Call for Collaborations
Cronoscopia actively seeks contributions from diverse voices to enrich its exploration of speculative narratives and temporal reimaginings. We welcome:
- Writers of Fiction, Essays, and Poetry: Those who bend time and reimagine landscapes through their prose and verse.
- Visual Artists: Creators crafting speculative ecologies and surreal cartographies that challenge conventional perceptions.
- Filmmakers and Digital Storytellers: Innovators experimenting with narrative forms to depict alternative realities and futures.
- Scholars and Theorists: Researchers delving into the aesthetics and politics of futurity, offering critical perspectives on speculative practices.
By fostering a collaborative environment, Cronoscopia aims to build a community dedicated to the speculative craft, encouraging submissions that challenge linear conceptions of time and propose alternative world-building practices.
For more information and to explore collaboration opportunities, visit: cronoscopia.com.
About the Author
Dr. Ariela Parisi is a scholar specializing in Latin American speculative fiction, memory studies, and digital humanities. Her research examines the intersections between historical memory and future imaginaries, particularly in literature and film. She has published on topics such as Afrofuturism, Indigenous futurisms, and posthumanism in Latin America.