Final Thesis Exhibit

Fog of War

Atlas of Contingency

Migrant Guide

Border Patrol Surveillance Tactics- Unattended Ground Sensors and Thermal Visions Cameras

Architecture Typologies Implicated from the U.S. Mexico Border

Network Map of the U.S.-Mexico Immigration and wall debate- Highlighting actors, artifacts, infrastructure, and projections

Section taken of the border landscape with details of the type of fence or water boundary

Thesis Mid Point

Dead Weight- Pulling topographies, the contours are pulled to the Arizona land which is then pulled down by the bodies the land has taken over the past decade.

50 bodies hanging, so many more to go. There have been over 1,000 migrant deaths in Arizona in the past decade.

The first attempt- the grid was too tight not allowing enough deflection

Trailing History- Historical U.S. Trails

Drawing the Line- How the U.S. has defined it's boundary since the 1700s

A River Runs Through It- The Rivers shaping the border

Fences Make Good Neighbors- Points of Entry and the Fence as they align along the border

Migrant Trails of Southern Arizona

Tracking Trails- Known paths migrants take to reach the United States

Moving Forward

The thesis seems to be at a mid-turning point of sorts. The next few steps will define how the work takes shape and it is critical to make decisions quickly. I am always reminding myself to keep pushing through, even if 90 percent of the things that are produced are worthless one of those things will stick. So heres to figuring out what sticks, and what the means to the end is. Its seems to be perfect timing to stumble upon Bruce Mau's manifesto. 


1. Allow events to change you.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

2. Forget about good.
Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.

3. Process is more important than outcome.
When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.

4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).
Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

5. Go deep.
The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.

6. Capture accidents.
The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

The Sound Strike

Exclusive Song for The Sound Strike "Coyote Song" by Bright Eyes. from Producciones Cimarrón on Vimeo.





Conor Oberst for The Sound Strike from Producciones Cimarrón on Vimeo.

Oh Bright Eyes, how I adore you. Thanks to THE SOUND STRIKE and artists who have joined the Arizona Boycott: M.I.A. • LILA DOWNS • MOS DEF • MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE • RODRIGO Y GABRIELA • IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE • TABOO • NINE INCH NAILS • CHRIS ROCK • MAROON 5 • GOGOL BORDELLO • MY MORNING JACKET• BEN HARPER • CYPRESS HILL • JUANES • CONOR OBERST • LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE • RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE • CAFE TACVBA • MICHAEL MOORE • KANYE WEST • CALLE 13 • JOE SATRIANI • SERJ TANKIAN • RISE AGAINST • OZOMATLI • SABERTOOTH TIGER • MASSIVE ATTACK • ONE DAY AS A LION • STREET SWEEPER SOCIAL CLUB • RY COODER • STEVE EARLE • BILLY BRAGG • SWEET HONEY AND THE ROCK • ANTI-FLAG • THROWING MUSES • STATE RADIO • DJ SPOOKY •  SPANK ROCK • SONIC YOUTH • TENACIOUS D • THE COUP

Inmigrantes como moscas

Each year some 400,000 Central American migrants trying to reach U.S. through Mexico. Travel like flies on freight trains: There are no flights for illegals, no future ...At one point in Veracruz, there is a moment of hope "the patrons", some brave women are waiting for them at the foot of the roads to deliver food and drink as they fly by on the trains every day for the past 15 years. This film "The train of the Flies" created by Tassier Nieves Prieto and Fernando López Castillo has been awarded the prize for best short in the past Political Film Festival Round.


Click here to view the film. At about 9 minutes in you can see them standing by the trains and hanging food out for the people to grab. Its a rush to say the least. 


Each day these women prepare 200 plus rations of food, for 15 years. Truly wonderful women, with large hearts. 

Mexico's Drug War

Mexico's Drug War courtesy of Boston.com by Alan Taylor. 

Bodies awaiting autopsies crowd a walk-in refrigerator at the morgue in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Feb. 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A recently constructed section of the controversial US-Mexico border fence expansion project crosses previously pristine desert sands at sunrise on March 14, 2009 between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California. The new barrier between the US and Mexico stands 15 feet tall and sits on top of the sand so it can lifted by a machine and repositioned whenever the migrating desert dunes begin to bury it. The almost seven miles of floating fence cost about $6 million per mile to build. (David McNew/Getty Images)

A border patrol vehicle drags the sand to make any new footprints of border crossers more visible along a recently constructed section of the controversial US-Mexico border fence expansion on previously pristine desert sands on March 14, 2009 between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)

A man is seen on his kness after being arrested by soldiers in a home where Central American migrants were being held hostage by a kidnapping gang in Reynosa, Mexico, late Tuesday, March 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)

Forensic workers remove one of nine bodies found at a plot on the outskirts of the border city of Ciudad Juarez March 14, 2009. An anonymous call led police to a site where at least nine bodies were found in a shallow grave local media reported. (REUTERS/Alejandro Bringas)

Shoes used for smuggling marijuana are displayed in the Drug Museum at the headquarters of the Mexican Ministry of Defense in Mexico City March 9, 2009. High precision rifles, a diamond and gold encrusted mobile phone, clandestine laboratories for drug processing and many more items that once belonged to drug traffickers are displayed in this private museum used by the military to show the soldiers the lifestyle of the Mexican drug lords. (REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez)

Federal police officers sit aboard an aircraft while flying to the border city Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, Monday, March 2, 2009. The deployment is part of a troop increase of 5,000 men planned for this city which has been hit hard by organized crime related violence. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)

Follow the link for more photos. There is a strong tone and story line being portrayed through this series of still images. Be warned, some photos are extremely graphic.

Technique

I recently discovered the work of Paul Edmunds. What is interesting about his work is the use of utilic materials to create dynamic forms. This work is from his show "Subtropicalia" in 2009. 

Edmund writes "This body of work began with a short story I wrote about my childhood in Johannesburg in the 70s and 80s and the insatiable interest I had in surfing and skateboarding. I use this as a kind of template through which to view my work, which is characterised by pattern, process and the use of unconventional materials, often resulting in an interpretation which emphasizes its abstract concerns over any others. This device reveals my abiding interest in repetitive form, design, colour and material to be firmly rooted in memory and sensory experiences that I evoke in the abovementioned story. The series of sculptures, two-dimensional pieces and a video work explore waveforms, symmetry and process in a variety of media across a range of scales. All photographs by Mario Todeschini"


I am interested in the relation between the stories, the written and the tactile. As the thesis moves forward I will be working through creative written works as well as physical work. 

Mapping America

Che

Check out this amazing new map that operates on a google map platform but reveals census data down to the city and the block.  Mapping America