Sep 3, 2008

thoughts on readings...

In trying to find connections between the behavior of aggregates and the fence as it applies to our vast site, I think about what Hensel and Menges claim is the greatest potential of aggregates, that is their shift from liquid to stable states, and a need to address a context that seems to be hardly static. More explicitly, I’m referring to the “temporary equilibriums”, or moments of local stasis along the wall, and the ensuing “(re)shape-ability” that might occur as variations in local conditions influence change. Zooming out enough to see the combined entropic nature and complexity of the border, I see the need for a system of “reading” the wall as latent qualities become visible and effectual. And if we are to believe Foucault’s notion of the “site” and it’s connotations of space are still as relevant today, then a network understanding of the relationships of the constituent elements and forces along the wall must be had.

Considering Foucault’s First Principle, if we are to see the wall as a forbidden place traversed by individuals risking their lives (5,000 deaths in the last 13 yrs) then the wall a heterotopia of crisis. And if the wall causes local US citizens to assist passing immigrants in the form of a phone call or escape, then is it also a heterotopia of deviation? The social and psychological components of these are interesting to me. Connected to this, I feel, is the Fifth where we might find a protocol for crossing on both sides of the border

It seems a broad understanding of the wall can be had in the Fourth Principle, if the wall, as I stated earlier, is comprised of static and dynamic moments, perhaps more temporal than not. Is the wall then more simply a heterochrony for which relations of onsets and offsets of movement must be deciphered?

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