Un/Designing the Borderline: Walls, Bodies, and Creative Resistance

ABSTRACT Far more than simply a geographical line, the Mexico–US border is a space wherein aesthetic processes are negotiated, a performative space that attracts and spurs a critical and creative imagination. The essay examines the border as a location of design from various perspectives. Firstly, the real-existing border and its recent installations and installation proposals will be considered, before the attention will be turned to conceptual designs which, understood as examples of artistic practice, broach the issue of such facilities and seek to subvert them through ideas. Contemporary art and design projects address the constructional character of the border and, in part, also deconstruct it, challenging stereotypical ascriptions and thus turning the rigid fixations brittle and friable, making the border porous. Design puts the imaginary into play, altering the perception of boundaries and what it means to shift and transgress them.