Borderlands, Conservation and Ecology

“Borderlands, Conservation and Ecology” presents the maps and drawings produced by students in GSAPP’s Critical, Conceptual, and Curatorial Practices Program and the Tohono O'odham Community College during a collaborative visualization workshop. The workshop is part of the ongoing project “Deserted Borderlands: Mapping Surveillance along the Tohono O’odham Nation” by GSAPP Ph.D. student Caitlin Blanchfield and Adjunct Assistant Professor Nina Kolowratnik.

Focusing on issues of ecological preservation, border militarization, and cultural landscapes, the workshop examined and illustrated how regimes of security impact and alter access and mobility practices in the Tohono O'odham indigenous nation in southern Arizona and the adjacent Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The representations of current border enforcement infrastructure and the different techniques of surveillance they depict interpret how this infrastructure operates in different administrative zones and its impact on existing cultural and ecological systems.

Through discussion of the projects, the event will generate a conversation on representation and spatial politics in the borderlands and issues of accessibility, the concept of natural preservation, and the complexities of jurisdiction.

Including work by Yujia Bian, Dan Cooper, Joachim Hackl, Jarrett Ley, Gizem Sivri, Celena Garcia and Carla Gonzalez.