Report from Borderhack 2.0 (day 1) by Cristine Wang day 1: arrived in Playas de Tijuana with Jenny Marketou (artist of "Translocal: Camp in My Tent" project), we got lost at the border, so we emailed Fran Ilich (director of Borderhack) from my cellphone which has a webconnection (for some reason i think they scramble the mobile network once you cross the border, so you cannot communicate, send or receive phone calls on your mobile)--luckily the web saved us, i told fran to call Jenny's number, and finally we found our way. met w/ fran ilich (conceptualiser of borderhack), luis humberto rosales (organiser of borderhack), cindy flores (organiser of cyberfeministas panel) as soon as we got to playas de tijuana, there was only a fax machine, cables everywhere, phone/data lines strewn on the floor next to the lighthouse--but we could call anywhere in the world...it was like the communications headquarters, like setting up a military camp, with means of transmitting information, data out of the camp, and receiving from the rest of the world... there were some workshops going on in lean-to's; but day 1 was mostly setting up the infrastructure, as most of the participants arrived the next day... we went down on the beach where the tents were being set up, next to the 10' high metal wall dividing the first and third world... on the other side, the american side, were 2 border patrol cars, waiting and ready for action...it seemed a fairly benign situation, seagulls flying freely between the two geopolitical territories, unaware of the presence of this defining line...couples were strolling hand in hand along the beach, and vendors were selling their brightly colored wares; but in the midst of all this, i spotted someone squeezed through between the gap in the wall, and i said to myself--it can't be---this person can't be attempting to cross the border in broad daylight! and with the 2 border patrols waiting, crouching to pounce--but in a blink of an instant, i saw 2 men running across the sand dunes up the beach, only to be caught by the u.s. border patrol; and handcuffed--then put into the patrol cars...! since indymedia crew was filming this, i thought to myself, maybe this was all staged? but then it can't be, so i asked 2 locals why did they do it? and their response was: "...even for one instant, their wish was simply to touch freedom and 'the american dream' on the other side..." the day ended with electronic music crossing both borders, as sound was easier to pass the border patrol, it was hosted by gabriel of club orbit. ================================================= relevant links: http://la.indymedia.org http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/ecd.html http://www.nyu.edu/classes/beaumont/border_crossing/Border_Crossing.html http://artcontext.com/act/01/USers http://fakeshop.com/90N/index3.html http://www.geocities.com/firstpulseproj/Borderhack.html http://www.name-space.org/ http://www.tribes.org http://ova.zkm.de/perl/ova-raplayer?id=998511570&base=ova.zkm.de http://users.rcn.com/laporta.interport/bordercam/bordercam.html http://www.metamute.com/ http://www.cellspace.org/ http://cristine.org/borders/Jenny.html http://cristine.org/borders/Emil.html http://de-lete.tv/borderhack http://cristine.org/borders =================================================
