we are transreal ///………….. our identities cross realities
December 7th, 2009

Media Frenzy over the Transborder Immigrant Tool

The Transborder Immigrant Tool was the subject of a whirlwind of media attention in the past week. The project has been developed by the Electronic Disturbance Theater, consisting of artists Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Amy Sara Carroll and Micha Cárdenas. The media coverage included television, radio and print stories including the Associated Press, BBC World, NBC, Fox, and the UCSD Guardian. While the actual stories are too many to list here, the following is a list of some of the major articles. Many media outlets improperly reported it as an Iphone app, others attempted to discredit the project saying it is illegal, and some interviewed Enrique Morones of the Border Angels, one of the humanitarian providers whose water caches the tools directs people to. Overall, the members of the group are extremely happy that the Transborder Immigrant Tool has been so effective in opening up dialog on the dire need for humanitarian aid at the border, where thousands of people have needlessly died. We look forward to completing and deploying the tool in the coming year. [also posted at the b.a.n.g. lab website]

GPS tool helps illegal immigrants cross US border
Associated Press

Celular para cruzar ilegalmente
BBC World

Border Crossing: There’s an App for That
NBC San Diego

Low-Tech App Aids in Crossing Mexican Border
UCSD Guardian

GPS para indocumentados
Telemundo

Border Crossing Application
Fox 5 TV San Diego

Smart phone application helps illegal immigrants navigate safely across border
NBC Spokane Washington

GPS Technology to Help Illegal Immigrants
KSRO – Santa Rosa,CA,USA

Poll: 56% say border-crossing tool threatens national security
OC Register

Border-Navigating Phone App Raises Concerns
KMJ Now – Fresno,CA,USA

mobile phone application gets mixed reactions
State Press

Border Crossing: There’s an App for That
NBC Chicago

UCSD Researches Creating Phone App For Border Crossers
MyStateline.com – Rockford,IL,USA

Want to sneak into US? There’s an app for that
WND.com – Washington,DC,USA

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November 25th, 2009

Interview on NBC about the Transborder Immigrant Tool

I don’t feel like this was really my best interview, with all the “like”’s and the distracted glancing around, but I’m still happy that our project, the Transborder Immigrant Tool, is bringing attention to the real need for humanitarian intervention to stop the thousands of deaths sensely occurring in the desert of the US/Mexico Border. Text version of the story is here.

We’ve really been getting a ton of press since the Vice magazine interview with Ricardo, which also mentioned the Freephone project. Yet I’m consistently impressed at how the media continues to misconstrue the story. They just want to sensationalize it as much as possible and keep talking about it as if it was an app to download for an iPhone, even though we keep telling them its not that, its a phone and j2me/java application that we’re still testing and will soon be distributing in Mexico, soon being next year, hopefully.

Ricardo Dominguez, co-founder of the Electronic Disturbance Theater, also did a long interview for NPR about the Transborder Immigrant Tool, which you can hear here. The interview had a lot of people calling in who made very heated comments, as well as a discussion with the Border Patrol.

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September 14th, 2009

Presenting at Mobile HCI Tomorrow

Hopefully, if skype works, I’ll be presenting at the Mobile HCI conference in Bonn, Germany tomorrow morning at the Community Practices and Locative Media Workshop. I’ll be presenting a paper on the Transborder Immigrant Tool. The pdf of that paper is here and it was co-written by myself, Ricardo Dominguez, Amy Sara Carroll and Brett Stalbaum of the Electronic Disturbance Theater.

Here’s the summary:

The Transborder Immigrant Tool: Violence, Solidarity and Hope in Post-NAFTA Circuits of Bodies Electr(on)/ic

Micha Cardenas, Amy Sara Carroll, Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum
EDT, Calit2, B.A.N.G. Lab, UCSD/Michigan

This polyvocal, collectively authored paper describes the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a border disturbance art project developed by the Electronic Disturbance Theater. The paper outlines the motivations behind the tool and elaborates a notion of Science of the Oppressed as a methodology for developing locative media projects in solidarity with social movements. A shift is identified from Tactical Media to Tactical Biopolitics in contemporary media art. Walkingtools.net is also introduced as a platform for sharing technical information about locative media projects in order to create an ecology of projects. Poetic sustenance, part of the Transborder Immigrant Tool’s functioning,is discussed in a context of Inter-American Transcendentalism.

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August 15th, 2009

Transborder Immigrant Tool in ISEA 2009 and Yucatan Biennale de Arte Nuevo Interactiva

I’m so happy to share this news… Check out the links, videos and more.

XborderImmigrantTool in the Yucatan Biennale Arte Nuevo Interactiva 2009! http://u.nu/7z5whttp://u.nu/7y7w

New Blog and Video Poems for the Transborder Immigrant Tool:  http://bang.calit2.net/xborder/

Transborder Immigrant Tool – Transition from banglab on Vimeo.

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