border_Hack 2.005

*For current borderhack info, see http://borderhack.org , it is being organized by the original borderhack organizers and san diego indymedia is not organizing it.

Conceptual Framework for a Borderhack
How do we hack the border? Thats the question for me. How do we disrupt the flows of violence, information, bodies and goods that are smoothly transmitted across the border by the hands of the state and multinational corps? The border is a virtual space: it has no meaning without its other side, its nonspace, its potential end. To take advantage of this, hacking seems necessary. Not just computer hacking, but political, social, economic hacking. The ability to redirect the energy surrounding the borderzone and let it emit around moments and spaces of autonomy, and not just security. A project like this would involved creative direct action, digital and physical art, bilinguial language training, a media center, a binational spokescouncil, camping out, teach-ins, gift/swap, surfing, more. . . How about we cross and recross the border over and over again until it blanks out, like when you reload a webpage over and over again?

Location:
San Diego - Tijunana

Strategic Goals:

Tactics and Logistics:

Institutional Input:

Collectives Input:

Individuals Input:

brainstorming...

• starting the (de)Center for Border Deconstruction?
• a call to actually MAKE media, infrastructure, art, grand schemes, transmitters, networks
• a real camp, a week long, more?
• along the lines of Occupied Territory, but centered around making media and strategy
• where? border field state park? smugglers gulch?
• could it serve as a launching place for marches and more direct confrontations?
• what would the funding requirements be? any? could we do it without spending much money?
• tying in zapatismo, maybe using the encuentro theme
• what would it accomplish
• we could have an international forum at the fence with a PA system

more thoughts on borderhack - lotus - 2-12-2005

links
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id=41
http://demandmedia.net/story/2005/1/25/5150/16088
http://english.acampamentofsm.org/
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcSDBorderHack2005
http://www.occupiedterritory.net/
http://noborder.org/news_index.php
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2002/07/1846.shtml
http://www.theexperiment.org/articles.php?news_id=1838
http://www.ctrl-z.org/magazine/2000/international/Borderhack.htm

Imagine setting up a 5 day experiment in autonomous community in the desert in El Centro. Imagine introducing attendees, presenters and media to the actual environment that people crossing the border have to experience. Imagine a 5 day exercise in atristic, technological and dialogical creation that transforms the border region which is so often used to separate us into a space for cultural exchance and the creation of networks of resistance.

Some elements:
different regions of the camp - the arts area, the tech/media area, the youth area, what other areas?

the practice of autonomy -
collective, consensus decision making for matters regarding the camp, based on some predeciced points of unity
camp perimeter security
collective food making and cleaning; anti-oppression dynamics

some needs:
medical tent, medical folks
lots and lots of shade and water
lots of big flags on really high posts, and hopefully some big sculptures!
to get the media out into the desert, for our protection, we'd need to work on relationships with reporters long before the camp starts
numerous police liaisons
lots of people trained in how to deal with law enforcement

relationships to work on:
tijuana art and activist groups
la frente zapatista nacional liberacion
border groups here in sd: afsc, raza rights, environmental health coalition
burning man people
art groups here in sd
voz alta, taco shop poets, third word

some questions:
could we find a good spot in the desert without a fence?
how close to the border can we get?
are we going to have the border patrol breathing down our necks 24 hours a day?
how do we keep people from getting heat stroke?

-- SdLotus - 21 Dec 2004
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