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Fig. 3.2
Border Memorial: Frontera de los Muertos
by John Craig Freeman, On the road to Ajo
along Highway 86, Arizona, 2013, Augmented reality public art
prevailing over being, he must take a risk with regard to the onrush of non-being,
with regard to disintegration, un-constancy, lack of structural order and disorder”
(Heidegger
2000
).
Heidegger's account foregrounds the “violence” of creative invention that pro-
duces both human prevailing against the overwhelming (nature) and also catastrophe
(the lesson of tragedy in general). His insight is that aporia is an irreducible dimen-
sion of poros. These experiments register this complexity: a/poria, im/mobility,
no/way. Ubimage for well-being is a practice of a/poria (im/mobile media).
Border Memorial: Frontera de los Muertos
, shown in Fig.
3.2
, is an augmented
reality public art project and memorial, dedicated to the thousands of migrant
workers who have died along the U.S./Mexico border in recent years trying to cross
the desert southwest in search of work and a better life. This project allows people
to visualize the scope of the loss of life by marking each location where human
remains have been recovered. Based on a traditional form of wood-carving from
Oaxaca, the virtual object consists of life sized, three dimensional geometric models
of a skeleton effigy or calaca. Calacas are used in commemoration of lost loved ones
during the Mexican Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead festivals. According to
indigenous belief, despite the tragedy, death should always be celebrated (Holmer
2005
). In the tradition of Día de los Muertos, the Border Memorial project is
designed to honor, celebrate and remember those who have died and to vault
this issue into public consciousness and American political debate. The project is
intended to provide a kind of lasting iconic presence in an otherwise ephemeral
physical environment and cultural discourse.
