Net Art Anthology: Transborder Immigrant Tool

   

         Transborder Immigration Tool, Electronic Disturbance Theater, Net Art Anthology

     Devised by the art group Electric Disturbance Theater, the "Transborder Immigrant Tool" began in 2007 with the intention of distributing low cost cell phones equipped with the Transborder immigration Took (TIT) app. As a part of Net Art Anthology, the project was exhibited on the website as a performance intervention. The app itself aimed to aid immigrants in their dangerous passages, through the deserts of Mexico to the US. The app features a GPS tool that guides users to water stations deployed by nonprofit organizations. TIT also showcased poetry inspired by from the beauty of the surrounding desert to ease the stress of immigrants on their journey. As a performative piece, the work spurred debates and faced backlash from conservative critics and the U.S. government, which conducted an investigation of the legality of the app. Due to this investigation, the tool was never distributed to its intended audience. The aftermath of this work magnifies the country’s lack of morals through the rejection of a tool aimed at supporting survival. Created back in 2007, this work carries the sentiment of a lack governmental ethics as the border has only been strengthened in its “Zero Tolerance policy” for Mexicans seeking asylum. Although the app never fully came to fruition, it questioned what is more important: enforcing border control or upholding basic human rights to survival?