Transborder Immigration Tool

1. CONTEXT: What were the circumstances that framed the meaning and process of this project?

People crossing the border from Mexico into the United States on foot need geographical guidance, as well as knowledge about where to find water in the desert during their journey. This app/poetic device provides aid to these people.

2. CONTENT: What was the issue, need, idea or opportunity addressed by this project?

The issue addressed by this project is the ways in which art and activism can effectively occupy the same space, as well as be used as a practical tool by the people it was advocating for. The project was also used as a way to “dissolve” borders and boundaries via art and technology.  

3: FORM: What is the medium that was used to address or embody the content?

The medium used was an app and the code for that app. The medium could also be said to be the mobile devices used to view this app as well as the people accessing it and utilizing the information therein.

4. STAKEHOLDERS: Which are the groups or individuals that were invested in the project?

Groups invested in the project include Ricardo Dominguez, a professor at UCSD and founder of Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT), and the members of EDT as well as, the people using the app to help them cross the border into California.

5. AUDIENCE: For whom was this project conceived?

This project was created to be experienced and used by people who were crossing the border from Mexico into the United States, and were in need of gps guidance and water. It has also been expanded to be used in other countries in order to permeate other borders.

6. ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES: How were the stakeholders, audiences, and others engaged/connected to the project?

Stakeholders were engaged via the creation of the app and the writing and sharing of the code that made the project possible. The audience is engaged via use of the app to aid them in their journey. The conservative media became connected to the project through their condemnation of it. The government became connected to the project via an investigation of Dominguez and his relationship to the project as a university supported and funded work of art.

7. GOAL: What are this project's objectives?

The project’s objectives were to use art as a vehicle for activism and a tool for providing aid to those who wished to cross the border into the United States in order to seek a better life.

8. VALUES: What were the project's guiding values or core beliefs? How were they expressed in the process?

The project’s core beliefs are that borders are a hindrance to the natural state of humanity, and that the strict and negative view of immigration in the United States could be undermined through the marriage of art and technology. This is expressed in the way this work of poetics was constructed to aid people in surviving crossing the border.

9. RESOURCES: What tangible and intangible resources were used to pursue the project's goals?

Tangible resources include mobile devices, water, land, the border, and the immigrants themselves. Intangible resources include the code used to create the app.

10: OUTCOMES: What were the results of this project?

This project has come under major scrutiny by the conservative party, however it has also been successful in its questioning of the ethics of borders and border crossing. The technology and code used for this project have now been shared with other communities in order to begin to “dissolve” and make permeable other borders in other parts of the world.