touristification

In this podcast, we sit down with transdisciplinary researcher and curator Yaiza Hernández to get to the heart of her deep-dive research into what she has coined Terminal Tourism. Drawing upon the long tradition of academic scholarship, but also from a situated perspective as a native from the Canary Islands, Yaiza unpacks the constellation of problems orbiting the travel industry, from environmental degradation to rampant gentrification and the subsequent disruption of local infrastructures, and a whole host of other socioeconomic inequalities.

We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with researcher and transdisciplinary curator Yaiza Hernández. We unpack the relationship between militarism and tourism by looking at zonified border territories that also model touristification. Through this lens, we also see that the tourist resort replicates the architectural layout of the colony, offering safe spaces for privilege, wealth, and whiteness. Then, we take a look at the current form of the museum model, warning of certain symptoms suggesting it is reaching a terminal stage. We wrap up with a digression into Yaiza’s understanding of cultural appropriation.

In this podcast, we sit with Laura Benítez Valero under a glass ceiling that never quite cracks, to talk about its unshakeable foundations, the question of class, and the scaffold of the meritocracy. Anger and shame are the emotions provoked by the emergence of this perverse and oppressive system, which reproduces inequalities generation after generation, until they become ingrained. From the same perspective, Laura Benítez Valero proudly recounts the legacy of a community-based education in the struggle of women who support families and children. She also talks about music and dance as catalysts and points of escape; and about research projects that take place outside of academia, in the form of erratic, intuitive and affective methodologies in which enjoyment plays a central role.