Legitimate & Artificial

Air Condition by Peter Sloterdijk

"We begin to understand that man is not what he eats, but what he breathes and that in which he is immersed. Cultures are collective conditions of immersion in air and sign systems."

le·git·i·mate

[li-jit-uh-mit]

noun, adj.

• to be in accordance with the law
• in accordance with established rules, principles, or standards.
  
• born in wedlock or of legally married parents
• logical
• genuine
• to make proper 

ar·ti·fi·cial

/ˌɑrtəˈfɪʃəl/ Show Spelled[ahr-tuh-fish-uhl]

adjective

• made by humans
• an imitation
• a sham
• lacking naturalness
• superficial characteristics rather than natural, organic relationships
• has an appearance of being natural
• not real or original

 

So my questions are raised in concerns as to who decides what is legitimate? And can you be legitimately artificial? 

 

Frontier & Identity

Frontiers: Territory and State Formation in the Modern World by Malcom Anderson

INTRODUCTION

"Contemporary frontiers are not simply lines on maps, the unproblematic givens of political life, where one jurisdiction or political authority ends and another begins; they are central to understanding life."

fron·tier  

[fruhn-teer ]

noun

originated from the Military as "the zone in which one faced the enemy"- now it is the precise line at which jurisdictions meet

• the part of a country that borders another country
• a boundary; border
• the land or territory that forms the furthest extent of a country's inhabited regions
• the edge, the furthest limit of a space
• the basic political institution 
• it defines the identity of a group of individuals
• it bounds space
• the limits, physically and culturally

 

i·den·ti·ty

[ahy-den-ti-tee, ih-den-]

 

noun

 

political or social; based on locality, social class, language, ethnicity, and religion

• the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another
• the sense of self, providing sameness and continuity in personality over time 
• an instance or point of sameness
• an assertion that two terms refer to the same thing

"A pervasive, often almost superstitious fear characterizes closed frontiers as line of transition between two worlds- crossing them involves a passage to dangerous forbidden lands."

Mine & Frontality

Wildness by Sanford Kwinter

"If our culture has lost interest in "the city" it is because we no longer know what it is (or whether it exists at all.) But this is no license for complacency or passive acceptance of what has come to replace it... The urban is the primordial modern human wilderness."

Term of engagement_ Mine & Frontality

mine
[mahyn]

verb

• to dig under to gain access or cause the collapse of (an enemy position)
• to extract from a source
• to burrow beneath the surface of
• to dig into
• to extract resources
• In agriculture: to grow crops in soil over an extended period of time without fertilizing
  

fron·tal·i·ty

[frən-ˈta-lə-tē]

noun

• a schematic composition of the front view that is complete without lateral movement
• a scene in a plane parallel to the plane of the picture surface
• Facing something head on
• Parallel planes of alignment to a view

"They are wild systems that range and explore an mine their environment, that capitalize on accidental successes, store them, and build upon them. They are densely layered systems..."

Travel Update

I've spent the last two weeks hiking the migrant trails in southern Arizona. Camped out in the desert with no plumbing or electricity was an adventure for me. I worked with an organization called "No More Deaths" to drop gallons of water along the trails in the desert.

What has consistently amazed me out here is the never ending struggle for water. I have never talked so much or heard so much talk about water- the cost, the supply. Its something that is so easily taken for granted, and yet has so much control over life an death.





















One of the more moving days was when we hiked to Red Hill Tank area to Josseline's Shrine. She was found next to this spot last January, with her feet in a puddle and her little shoes laying next to her. At 15 years old she was crossing the Arizona desert with her little brother and a group of people. When she couldn't keep up she sent her brother for help, and she managed to survive two weeks on her own somehow.

On Friday I attended "Operation Streamline" at the Courthouse in Tucson. 70 migrants were criminally convicted of illegal entry, or re-entry in about a one-hour session. And this happens every day of the week. 15 attorneys, 70 defendants (all in shackles) sentenced for up to 180 days in prison. Afterward we met with the Public Defender's office and she quoted operation streamline as costing Arizona over 10 million a month, along with $2000 a month for each migrant serving time in prison.

I keep seeing Billboards for John McCain saying "Fighting for a Secure Border" around Tucson. His solution seems to add more militarization and more tax payers money to anything and everything to do with the border.

On Thursday, July 29th SB1070 is set to go into effect in Arizona. I will be traveling up to Phoenix to document the protests, and see what happens. Then starts my road trip along the rest of the length of the border.

Sueing AZ: Arizona's SB 1070

U.S. v. A.Z. Brief

U.S. v. A.Z. Complaint

FreakingNews had some interesting visual commentary/photoshopping on what Dora the Explorer's life would be like if she was illegal...

The All American Canal

Located in Southwestern California, the canal is completely within the United States, yet the IID refuses to install safety features to prevent the increasing number of deaths and drownings, an estimated 600.

"The All-American Canal is the Imperial Valley's lifeline from the Colorado River. Approximately 3.1 million acre-feet of Colorado River water is delivered annually through the All-American Canal to nine cities and 500,000 acres of agricultural lands throughout the Imperial Valley." From the IID

What is interesting, and pointed out in the movie is the duality of the "life" the canal provides, along with the death. The people dying in the canal are crossing in hopes of working in the agricultural jobs produced by the canal.

watch the video!

Watch CBS News Videos Online

NASA image of the canal

List of the known deaths in the canal