IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

A Total Solar Eclipse knows no borders. Equally visible to everyone in its path, experiencing this immersive, extraordinary macrocosmic event, brings people and environment together – whether in myth or celebration – seeing earth in motion.
I chose Eagle Pass, Texas, a fraught geographical border location between the United States and Mexico to immersively capture the all-inclusive Total Solar Eclipse April 8, 2024. Contrasting the awe-inspiring moment of totality, everyone looking up to the same sky with the same wonder, to harsh razorwire realities of the currently divisive TX/MX border – a location with historical heritage, 1800’s to present, creating unique cultural blends of Mexican, American, Indigenous influences. Emphasizing confluence of a “borderless” Total Solar Eclipse, cultural fusion and border realities, Border Eclipse Immersive addresses social political border issues and migration – from an artist’s perspective. Border Eclipse Immersive is an experiential Video, Virtual Reality, Interactive Media Arts Installation reframing border narratives by contrasting the all-encompassing serenity of the celestial event with human turmoil and inequities below – to reimagine more nuanced, compassionate and humane border environments. From space we are an environmentally and culturally borderless planet. Humanity at the border has potential to unite rather than divide – as does an eclipse – to encourage synergistic benefits of working together on a planet worth preserving. Border Eclipse offers fresh perspective, a tiny step forward to navigating more equitable, sustainable, peaceful, and harmonious humanity bringing peoples and environment together. (Globally over decades, I’ve recorded 12+ Total Solar Eclipses including Amasya, Turkiyé ’99, Libya ’06, Bolivia ’94, Siberia ’08.)