Dear Chancellor Fox and Senior Vice Chancellor Drake,
We are writing to express our strong support for our colleague Ricardo Dominguez. Over the past several months Professor Dominguez has been the target of campus investigations focusing on research projects that have been under development for some time. The first project, Transborder Immigrant Tool, was developed at CALIT2 as an “affective” tool, designed to encourage discussion and dialogue over the mounting number of deaths suffered by undocumented workers crossing into the US. Using basic cell phone technology, the Trans Border Immigrant Tool would help immigrants find water stations that have been placed in desert regions by humanitarian organizations, with the approval of the United States Border Patrol. While the Tool employs a form of “Global Positioning System” software, it might be more accurately described as an “ideological” positioning system, revealing points of tension and contradiction in the current debate over undocumented labor in this country. How do we value human life? Is it a universal good, or does our responsibility for the survival of others depend on their legal status or nationality?
The second project, Virtual Sit-In on the UCOP Website was developed in conjunction with the UC-wide demonstrations against budget cuts to the system and recent racist incidents on campus on March 4, 2010. Given the level of disinformation circulating about Professor Dominguez’s work it’s important to clarify the distinction between the Virtual Sit-In as a form of “Electronic Civil Disobedience” (ECD), a key component of Dominguez’s research and teaching, and a “Distributed Denial of Service” attack (DDOS). A DDOS attack is intended to permanently disable a given server through the surreptitious use of thousands of “zombie” computers that are appropriated to this purpose without the knowledge of their owners. Further, DDOS attacks often involve the unauthorized violation of restricted or non-public computer systems, or the covert introduction of software viruses. ECD, on the other hand, involves no unauthorized access, and only engages with public internet sites. Its “source code” is not hidden but clearly accessible. Further, the authorship of ECD actions is open and public (the actions are always announced and publicized ahead of time), rather than anonymous. Participants in an ECD action see their involvement as a form of collective political speech. Their intention is not to disable a given server or site but to bring attention to a given issue of broad public concern.
Founded over forty years ago, the Visual Arts Department at UCSD has a long history as a center for experimentation at the boundaries of “art and life” (in the words of early faculty member Alan Kaprow). This is a tradition of which we are justifiably proud, and which has won our program an international reputation. It encompasses the projects of emeritus professors Helen and Newton Harrison, which cross the boundaries between art and environmental science (they developed some of the earliest visualizations of the effects of global climate change), Fred Lonidier’s work with independent trade unions in Mexico, Benjamin Bratton’s research into the future of mass transit in California, Cauleen Smith’s recent collaborations with Nigerian filmmakers, and Teddy Cruz’s innovative projects in San Ysidro, which combine elements of art, architecture and urban planning. Professor Dominguez’s research is exemplary of this tradition. He has gained an international reputation on the basis of over fifteen years of groundbreaking work in visual arts and new media. His is widely known for his contribution to the emerging field of ECD and cultural practices that move between art, performance, media and activism. He was hired, and awarded tenure, on the basis of this work, and ECD was a central feature of his tenure file only a year ago.
It is the unique mission of a public university to make higher education available to all, and not just the wealthy and privileged. As faculty in one the most respected public education systems in the world we thus feel a unique responsibility. It is essential to understand that the “public” is not monolithic, but is composed of diverse and often conflicting constituencies. It is our mandate as educators to explore these points of tension and reconciliation in our research and our teaching. Clearly we are living through a period of profound technological change. It is in the nature of such moments that these changes also transform our understanding of culture and politics, introducing new concepts of public identity and space, and new modes of political action and cultural expression. This is precisely the task that Professor Dominguez has taken on in his research. If UCSD is to retain its international reputation for excellence it’s essential that the principles of academic and artistic freedom be defended against the growing pressures exerted by incipient privatization and political extremism. While we respect the university’s commitment to due process, and recognize that the investigative process includes safeguards to protect faculty, we remain concerned that the very act of launching an investigation into work that has already undergone both internal and external academic review will undermine the integrity and independence of research on this campus. Moreover, it will result in a chilling effect if faculty perceive that administrative support for the principle of academic freedom is dependent on a calculation of political expediency.
Professor Grant Kester
Chair, UCSD Visual Arts Department
Professor Amy Adler
Professor Amy Alexander
Professor Emeritus David Antin
Professor Emeritus Eleanor Antin
Professor Benjamin Bratton
Professor Sheldon Brown
Professor Norman Bryson
Professor Jordan Crandall
Professor Teddy Cruz
Professor Steve Fagin
Professor Anya Gallaccio
Professor Jean-Pierre Gorin
Professor Jack Greenstein
Professor Louis Hock
Professor Fred Lonidier
Professor Emeritus Kim MacConnel
Professor Babette Mangolte
Professor Lev Manovich
Professor Elizabeth Newsome
Professor Sheldon Nodelman
Professor Rubén Ortiz-Torres
Professor Kyong Park
Professor Jennifer Pastor
Professor Emeritus Jerome Rothenberg
Professor Kuiyi Shen
Professor Ernest Silva
Professor Cauleen Smith
Professor Susan Smith
Professor Brett Stalbaum
Professor Haim Steinbach
Professor Phel Steinmetz
Professor Lesley Stern
Professor Michael Trigilio
Professor John Welchman
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