Scaping the border: On black migrant geographic agency in gamescapes

Abstract

Biometric technologies deployed at the border virtualize this space in such a manner that frontiers and their lines of demarcation are inscribed onto bodies of migrants. This disappearance of the border as a geographic zone, as addressed in critical border studies, has incited multiple theories. Among these is the theory of borderscapes in which, the suffix ‘-scape’, meaning ‘to shape’, accounts for the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic processes of building national frontiers. This article addresses gamescapes ‐ the designed virtual environment of video games ‐ as a zone in which migrants can perform artistic interventions and enact their mobility within borders. The author positions her walking simulator game Dreams of Disguise: Errantry (2018) as one of such gamescapes. Through the analysis of the game, this article addresses the implications of purposeful movement through the virtual border for black migrants.