I begin this project with two images, the alien mothership hovering over Devils Tower from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind and a still photograph of the passenger airliner crashing into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I then use these images to launch into an examination of tropes of invasion and conquest present in both American frontier mythology and UFO/alien encounter folklore and fiction, arguing that the former paved the way for the latter. By comparing the fantastic, in this case images from popular scifi cinema, with the mundane realities of ongoing postcolonial struggles, I hope to draw out the relative experiences of colonial occupation as seen through the opposing viewpoints of the colonizer and the colonized. Of particular interest here is how contemporary UFO and alien encounter lore have developed in tandem with world events as we transitioned from the Cold War to the War on Terror. As I will demonstrate, much of what informs alien invasion narratives stems from our conflicted relationship with our colonial history, our current status as inheritors of that legacy - even as we continue to occupy much of the globe in the same manner as we did in our frontier past - and the pervasive anxieties that we may ourselves become victims of foreign incursion and occupation - be it from earthly or otherworldy sources.
About the presenterStephen P Smyth
I am currently pursuing graduate studies at University of Southern California’s School of Social Work. I hold a Bachelors in Architecture (Barch) and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Current and past research and writings include topics on popular media, post-war American architecture, and popular culture—with specific focus on simulated and themed spaces and environments.