2000 – Borderhack Manifesto – Fran Ilich & Luis Humberto Rosales
Text
Fragments
"That is why we propose this Borderhack, a camp that does not pretend to destroy the border, but, in a worst case scenario, only to make us conscious of it. In the world of computers, Hacking is understood as the penetration, exploration or investigation of a system with the goal of understanding it, not of destroying it, and that is exactly what we are trying to do: to understand the border, to know what it represents and to become aware of the role that we play in it. All this with the goal of improving the relations between two worlds (the first and the third), Mexico and the US. We want not only to understand why this relationship has suffered under the influence of certain sectors of society that have fostered a climate of violence and racism, but also to understand the strange attraction that unites us. And what better way to accomplish this than by doing it right on the physical border, by spending three days trying to get to the bottom of the problem and really understand what is it that unites us and what is it that separate us."
"The idea to synthesize the camp is born out of our condition of dilettante border kids, out of our years of crossing the border and doing a little window shopping, pretending that we could be part of the American Dream of wealth, happiness and freedom. We are confused, we accept it. On one side, the Malls are filled with happiness, and on the other, the wrong side, we are forever condemned to produce goods that we will never enjoy ourselves."
Context
The manifesto, of which only fragments have been found, was presented in the town of Playas de Tijuana belonging to the municipality of Tijuana in 2000 during the Borderhack festival that took place from September 1 to 3 (1). The event took place in front of one of the border fences that divide Mexico from the United States and featured net art exhibitions, film screenings, conferences and workshops (1). Borderhack was an extension of the Kein Mensch ist Illegal movement that could translate to Engglish as "no one is illegal" (2). Kein Mensch ist Illegal was carried out for the first time in the year 1998 in Europe with the purpose of discussing and expressing opinions about the treatment given to migrants from the borders between the European Union and the countries that made up the Soviet Union ( 1). The meetings held in Tijuana were led by Cinematik Laboratories, a mixed media group with experience in the promotion of cyberculture and electronic music, also aimed to understand the structure and functioning of the border between Mexico and the United States (1) .
Authors
Fran Ilich is a writer and multimedia artist born in Tijuana in 1975 (3). Some of the recurring themes in his artistic practice are hacktivism, investment banking and narrative media, and he is the author of the novels' 'Metro Pop' '(1997),' 'Tekno Guerrilla' '(2008) and' 'Circa 94' '(2010) (3). Ilich has also presented his work and participated in forums such as Documenta 12, Transmediale, Berlinale Talent Campus, MIT media in Transition, Electronic Literature Organization symposium and Hybrid Storyspaces at Cornell University (3).
When the manifesto was written, Luis Humberto Rosales was a medical student as well as a writer and founding member of Laboratorios Cinematik (1).
References
(1) http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors/ilichtext.html
(2) http://divus.cc/london/en/article/at-the-edge-of-impermanence
(3) http://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=artista&table_id=4810
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Links
URL: http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors/ilichtext.html
Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20180406145024/http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors/ilichtext.html
