WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION We are pleased to announce the inaugural Border Insecurities Summer Workshop, sponsored by the TTU College of Architecture. We seek students from a diverse range of disciplines, including architecture, art, geography, political science and economics to study, question, and design for emerging conceptions of public space in the borderlands. Workshop participants will engage with experts on security issues in the US/Mexico border region to construct speculative interventionist artifacts for display in a public exhibition in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.
FACULTY Daily workshops led by Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller, (AGENCY, TTU). Primary instructor Dr. Robert Gonzalez (Director TTU El Paso). GUEST SPEAKERS Tatiana Bilbao (Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO) Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman (Estudio Teddy Cruz + Forman, UCSD Cross-Border Initiative) Patrick Schaefer (Hunt Institute, UTEP) Chris Taylor (Land Arts of the American West, TTU)
SITES Travel is planned to sites throughout the dynamic El Paso / Ciudad Juárez region, including military training environments, simulated logistics cities, testing ranges, detention centers and military archives, as well as place-specific art installations in Cabinetlandia and Marfa.
COURSE OUTLINE : MAPPING AND MAKING Students will investigate emerging ‘securocratic’ territories throughout the southwest, uncovering the effects of military doctrine, security interests, and emerging technologies on the built environment of the borderland. Drawing on regional datasets, students will create an archive of emerging binational ‘securocratic’ infrastructures and landscapes, producing both analytical and speculative maps for publication. Students will craft ‘hackable infrastructures’ – small-scale, built interventions manifest as wearable technologies or other micro-projects of the student’s design. Students will work with Arduino and Raspberry Pi to craft working prototypes of their designs, and realize an installation to be documented photographically in public space. A final exhibit is planned in a public space in Ciudad Juárez.
TTU-EL PASO The workshop is offered through TTU-El Paso, an architecture school located in a functioning train station, steps from the US/ Mexico border. The school provides students with a unique, handson, and place-based educational and professional experience, engaging issues of binational development in the border region through design.
REGISTRATION Registration deadline: May 15, 2016 For questions and application information please contact:ersela.kripa@ttu.edu
