[spectre] // Border Bumping //

[Julian Oliver]

Hi list,

It is my pleasure to announce a new project, commissioned by Abandon Normal
Devices, U.K.

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Border Bumping is a work of dislocative media that situates cellular
telecommunications infrastructure as a disruptive force, challenging the
integrity of national borders.

As we traverse borders our cellular devices hop from network to network across
neighbouring territories, often before or after we ourselves have arrived. These
moments, of our device operating in one territory whilst our body continues in
another, can be seen to produce a new and contradictory terrain for action..

Running a freely available, custom-built smartphone application, Border Bumping
agents collect cell tower and location data as they traverse national borders in
trains, cars, buses, boats or on foot. Moments of discrepancy at the edges are
logged and uploaded to the central Border Bumping server, at the point of
crossing.

For instance: a user is near the border in Germany but her device reports she is
in France. The Border Bumping server will take this report literally and the
French border is redrawn accordingly. 

The ongoing collection and rendering of these disparities results in an ever
evolving record of infrastructurally antagonised territory, a tele-cartography.

Project Page:

    http://borderbumping.net

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Greetings from Berlin,

-- 
Julian Oliver
http://julianoliver.com
http://criticalengineering.org