Artivists and Mobile Phones: The Transborder Immigrant Project
original article hereI like this project because its refreshing. Ricardo Dominquez is actually making art that matters. not for arts sake. or as an intellectual exercise. but as way to create a new language to empower people. ”oh, the technology will eventually become accessible, we care, we are thinking about it” - yah probably, it seems ”just a little” compared to Ricardo. who has taken on the responsibility of not making it an academic excerise, but putting it into the hands of the people that it represents. He has creatively figured out how to do this by pushing the idea of what it traditionally means to be an artist. diving into computer programming to figure out how to use GPS without a GPS receiver. a cheap phone that you probably tossed away before you got yr iphone. so Ricardo creates this movement. generates this new language. others start to contribute. eventually it grows and becomes an empowered group of people. would this be considered dangerous? to whom?so when we hear the goats get shot -maybe its for the better, maybe its an indication, a wake up call, that we have lost touch with the people and the space around us?
wow i was going to say something about this project i found, but you beat me to it.
Comment by phyllis — January 31, 2008 @ 7:16 am
This is a great project. It sounds like they plan to use triangulation to get the location and guide people to watersheds and the border. I would like to see this project be a success.
Comment by dstrand — January 31, 2008 @ 8:51 am
In the interest of keeping this discussion board a positive and friendly forum, I would ask that you refrain from including your personal feelings toward individual class members in the tone of your posts. That being said, a few questions regarding this project:
What is the “poetic frame” of this project that supposedly carries it into the realm of art? In other words, Dominguez mentions ” a large landscape of aesthetic vision, ” and also references “walking art” but the users of his devices will need them primarily for survival. Granted, the interface has been developed to be intuitive, but so are many high-end GPS devices. The question is how many of the immigrants will perceive this as art, as opposed to an outreach program? And if they don’t, who is the actual audience?
Comment by casey.guerrero — February 5, 2008 @ 6:12 am