Project information
Year
2024
Industry
Ethnography & Research
Services
Ethnography
Design Research
Editorial Design
Legacy and Queerness
To My Future, Non-Existent Children is an investigative and ethnographic research publication dealing with the theme of Latin American family legacy through a queer perspective, asking the reader what it is that humanity is leaving for future generations. Born out of the observation that there is an ever-growing percentage of the population that identifies as LGBT+ and that this will inevitably lead to new models of the family unit, this publication and critical platform poses the question of how queer family structures will impact the political, economic and cultural aspects of the social fabric.
This publication deals with these respective matters, all figuratively addressed to my non-existent child. This serves as a reference point and conversation starter for queer individuals to explore their relationship to legacy and the family unit.
To My Future… grapples with the complex and thorny issues that come with family-making. The impact of climate change on the quality of life of our future generations (Soloski, 2024), the ethics of surrogacy (García, 2023), the stigma of adoption; these are all tough questions that straight couples might get to ignore, but all queer parents have to deal with this moral maelstrom. Ultimately, “we’ll all have to account for how well we parent our children—no matter their origin, and no matter what we think about the various ways we create our families” (Culhane, 2017), and this will determine the quality of our future for generations to come. Regardless if one wants to have children or not, the question of whether we are creating a world we want future generations to enjoy is an important one. What would we like for future generations to understand about 2025? What will be gone? What will remain?
This project was my final thesis for my university degree. I conducted field research by interviewing individuals, ranging from young adults to seniors from a variety of social sectors and countries while addressing the aforementioned themes. It required research into the legal complexities of LGBT rights in Latin America, as well as the financial and social limitations that might be in place. The publication was awarded by the Latin American Design Awards for its design excellence, as well as recipient of the UAL Graduate Award for its outstanding contribution to culture out of more than 1,500 theses. It has been purchased by London Lethaby Gallery for educational and expository purposes, and project workshops and talks have been supported by Cuadrante in Monterrey, Mexico, an arts, architecture and design organization.
CSM Graduate Award Panel
Cristobal touches on the very real and hardly discussed topic of family in the Queer community. I found his investigations into the topic extremely powerful as it breaks down the very idea of family. Many of us have been rejected by our families in one way or another, go through the atypical process of selecting our own chosen family, and also have to deal with the legal and political barriers to having children of our own. My favourite part of the publication was the letters written by queer people to ‘their future, non-existent children’ — people leaving behind the love for children that they always had and will have even when those children may never exist.
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