©© // DIALOGUE IN TRANSIT: AMBOS
This special iteration of Dialogue in Transit organized by cog•nate collective invited artists, researchers and activists from Los Angeles, San Diego and Tijuana to reflect on trans-border dynamics shaping the lives of communities in the greater Baja / Alta California border region.
Each conversation took place inside of the cog•nate cruiser, as we waited in line to cross the border, and was live-broadcast over hyper-local pirate radio at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on 87.9 FM.
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Esta edición especial de Dialogue in Transit (Diálogos en Tránsito) organizada por cog•nate collective invitó a artistas, investigadores y activistas de Los Ángeles, San Diego y Tijuana a hacer una reflexión acerca de las dinámicas transfronterizas que moldean la vida de las comunidades del área de Alta / Baja California.
Cada conversación sucedió dentro del auto de cog•nate, mientras esperábamos en línea a cruzar la frontera, y fue transmitida en vivo a través de una estación de radio pirata hiper-local en la Garita Internacional de San Ysidro en la estación 87.9 FM.
Border Soundscapes | IOB
For Part I of this special AMBOS iteration of Dialogue in Transit, Geovanni Zamudio, aka, IOB (Intrepida Orquesta de Beats) joins us to discuss + play music that has delineated and blurred the US/Mexico border + shaped the Tijuana / Los Angeles soundscape.
Geovanni Zamudio is a cultural researcher, educator and mixer of analgous electro-music under the name of the Intrepid Orquestra of Beats or IOB, whose sounds have taken the form of hip-hop, trip hop, down tempo and dub.
Zamudio received his masters degree in Cultural Studies from the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, where he undertook research on sobreuredas (mobile flea markets) in the city of Tijuana, analyzing the public function of such spaces and the type of trans-border cultural + aural exchange taking place through these community markets.
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Para la 1ra parte de esta iteración especial de Dialogo en Transito durante AMBOS, Geovanni Zamudio, IOB (Intrepida Orquesta de Beats), nos acompaña y comparte música que ha delineado y ofuscado la frontera entre EEUU y México + dado forma al paisaje sonoro entre Tijuana y Los Ángeles.
Geovanni Zamudio es investigador cultural, educador y mezclador de electro-música análoga bajo el nombre de la Intrépida Orquesta de Beats o IOB, cuyo sonido ha tomado la forma de hip-hop, trip hop, down tempo, y dub.
Zamudio recibió su maestría en Estudios Culturales del Colegio de la Frontera Norte, donde realizó investigación acerca de mercados sobreruedas en la ciudad de Tijuana, analizando su función como espacios públicos en la ciudad y documentando el intercambio transfronterizo cultural + aural que se da a través de tales mercados comunitarios.
Border Soundscapes | Josh Kun
For Part I of this special AMBOS iteration of Dialogue in Transit, Josh Kun joins us and shares music that has delineated and blurred the US/Mexico border + shaped the Tijuana / Los Angeles soundscape.
As a critic and historian of music and popular culture, Kun’s work navigates the stretch of land that spans between the contentions territory that we call Alta and Baja California through the metaphor of the crossfader, which in its practical application allows for the juxtaposition and clash of different sounds, without erasing difference, creating a new space of sound, through contact dissonance and feeling. “The art of the crossfader” is the art of the dialogue, and this discursivity is something we wish to enact during this crossing, as we fade from one nation into another.
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Para la 1ra parte de esta iteración especial de Dialogo en Transito durante AMBOS, Josh Kun nos acompaña y comparte música que ha delineado y ofuscado la frontera entre EEUU y México + dado forma al paisaje sonoro entre Tijuana y Los Ángeles.
Como un critico e historiador de música y la cultura popular, el trabajo de Kun navega el territorio que llamamos Alta y Baja California a través de la metáfora del crossfader, que en su aplicación practica permite la yuxtaposición y choque entre diferentes sonidos, sin borrar la diferencia, creando un nuevo espacio para el sonido, a través del contacto entre la disonancia y el afecto. “El arte del crossfader” es el arte del dialogo, y este tipo de discursividad es algo que nos gustaría lograr a través de este cruce, mientras nos desvanecemos de una nación a otra.
Border (Counter)Narratives | Adrian Arancibia + Kendy Rivera
For Part II of this special iteration of Dialogue in Transit, Adrian Arancibia + Kendy Rivera join us to discuss Border (Counter) Narratives – sharing poetry and music that reflect on the stories we tell ourselves about who we are as individuals and communities living and working in this Tijuana – San Diego – Los Angeles border territory.
Adrián Arancibia was born in Iquique, Chile in 1971. Arancibia moved to the United States following the overthrow of the Allende presidency in Chile. After arriving into the midwestern town of Carterville, Missouri his family settled in San Diego, California. There, Arancibia attended grade and high school and eventually attended U.C. Berkeley and U.C. San Diego. While working for six years as an elementary school teacher, Arancibia also helped found the seminal Chicano/Latino performance poetry collective the Taco Shop Poets. Arancibia later co-founded the San Diego artspace Voz Alta and continues programming and organizing for the arts. He currently works as a professor of English at Miramar Community College. His creative work depicts and comments on the lives of immigrants. His critical work focuses on literature and it’s relation to social space and popular culture.
Kendy Rivera hails from the Tijuana-San Diego (trans)border. Rivera is an entering fifth-year doctoral student in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Commuting between the state of California and Baja California, Kendy has specialized her graduate research in Border Studies, and the hybrid manifestations that bordered experiences articulate. Her dissertation project sheds-light on a “new” Latina/o/ Mexican-American/Chicana experience that navigates the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.
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Para la segunda parte de esta iteracion especial de Dialogo en Transito, Adrian Arancibia + Kendy Rivera nos acompañan para compartir poemas y musica, reflexionando en las historias y narrativas que nos contamos acerca de quienes somos, como individuos y comunidades viviendo y trabajando en el territorio fronterizo de Tijuana, San Diego y Los Angeles.
La conversación se llevo a cabo dentro del cog•nate cruiser, una radio-camioneta, mientras esperábamos en línea para cruzar la frontera. El dialogo se transmitió en vivo por medio de radio pírate híper-local en la Garita de San Ysidro.
Border (Counter)Narratives | Rafa Esparza
For Part II of this special iteration of Dialogue in Transit, Rafa Esparza joins us to discuss Border (Counter) Narratives – reflecting on the stories we tell ourselves about who we are as individuals and communities living and working in this Tijuana – San Diego – Los Angeles border territory.
Rafa Esparza was born in 1981 in Los Angeles. Esparza studied at East Los Angeles College before transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his BFA, and currently works in a variety of mediums, including installation, sculpture, drawing, painting, and performance. He has shown work at a variety of sites, including traditional fine art contexts and community-based platforms, as well as outdoor public locations that he has independently organized.
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Para la segunda parte de esta iteracion especial de Dialogo en Transito, Rafa Esparza nos acompañan para compartir reflexionar en las historias y narrativas que nos contamos acerca de quienes somos, como individuos y comunidades viviendo y trabajando en el territorio fronterizo de Tijuana, San Diego y Los Angeles.
La conversación se llevo a cabo dentro del cog•nate cruiser, una radio-camioneta, mientras esperábamos en línea para cruzar la frontera. El dialogo se transmitió en vivo por medio de radio pírate híper-local en la Garita de San Ysidro.
Cog•nate Collective is a binational collective of artists + researchers analyzing dynamics of exchange across the US/Mexico border through collaborative research projects + public interventions + experimental pedagogical programs. Their work proposes an understanding of the border not as a bifurcating line, but as a region that expands and contracts with the movement of people and objects, inviting critical engagement with issues of migration, informal economies and the construction of collective identities in the Baja/Alta California transborder region.
From 2011-2014 they ran Cognate Space, a research + workshop space sited in a craft market at the San Ysidro Port of Entry–the busiest land border crossing in the world–between Tijuana B.C. and San Diego, CA. Programs included: art workshops, a residency hosting a co-op of previously excluded Mixtec women artisans, a hyper-local pirate radio station produced in-site to share testimonies of border workers & crossers, and Dialogue in Transit, a mobile conference that took place in a caravan of cars waiting to cross the border among other projects.
Cog•nate Collective currently works between Los Angeles, CA, Santa Ana, CA, Tijuana BC and Mexicali, BC.
Cog•nate Collective es un colectivo binacional de arte + investigación cuyos proyectos analizan dinámicas de intercambio en la frontera entro EEUU/México por medio de investigación colaborativa + intervenciones publicas + programas pedagógicos experimentales. Su trabajo plantea al frontera no como una línea divisoria, sino como una región que se expande y se contrae con el movimiento de personas y objetos, invitando una perspectiva critica sobre temas de migración, economías informales, y la construcción de identidad colectiva en la región transfronteriza de Baja/Alta California.
Entre 2011-2014 coordinaron Espacio Cognado, un taller y centro de investigación localizado dentro del Mercado de Artesanías de la Línea de la Garita de San Ysidro, en Tijuana BC, uno de los cruces fronterizos mas transitados en el mundo. Programas incluyeron: talleres de arte, una residencia con Mujeres Mixtecas (un colectivo de mujeres artesanas que habían sido excluidas del mercado), la estación de radio pirata híper-local Borderblaster, y otros programas culturales.
Actualmente Cog•nate trabaja entre Los Angeles, CA, Santa Ana, CA, Tijuana, BC y Mexicali, BC.