VIRTUAL Barcelona

Abstract

The international boundary between present day Canada and the United States passes between several urban regions in the Great Lakes waterways. This 18th century political division has become physically entrenched in the last two decades as border infrastructure has grown since 2001. While the COVID-19 border closure prompted a greater need to form virtual cross-border alliances in the state of emergency we found ourselves in, cities in this region continue to face cultural and ecological challenges unique to these international borderlands. At issue are forms of trans-local knowledge and exchange—Black, Indigenous and diasporic histories that are specific to the region as groups in both Canada and the US reckon with decolonial histories that cut across national boundaries. Sensing Borders: Mapping, Media and Migration, is a multi-year collaborative media arts project that attempts to draw cultural maps between communities in the Great Lakes region where the international boundary has produced spatial displacement and historical gaps. The project attempts to activate mapping practices across marginal spaces (politically, ecologically) and to connect cultural undercurrents within this geographic region where water was once a point of connection rather than division.