Dialogue in Transit
2014 -

An ongoing series of conversations inviting artists, researchers and activists from Los Angeles, San Diego and Tijuana to join us aboard the the cog•nate cruiser to reflect on trans-border dynamics shaping the lives of communities in the greater Baja / Alta California border region.

Each conversation takes place as we wait in line to cross the border and is live-broadcast over hyper-local pirate radio at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on 87.9 FM.

The most recent iteration of the series, titled "Otro Mundo Nos Espera" was undertaken in collaboration with students from San Diego State University and presented a sonic journey through border spaces near and far. You can listen to an abridged version of the broadcast below:.

Dialogue in Transit: Evolution of a Line​, the first iteration of the project, brought together researchers and artists from San Diego and Tijuana to reflect on the evolution of the border's ideological and physical manifestations 20 years since the implementation of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). 

Speakers included Victor Clark Alfaro Director of the Binational Human Rights Center in Tijuana; Norma Iglesias-Prieto Chair of the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at SDSU; Tijuana Artist + Poet Omar Pimienta; and Juan Manuel Torres, shop owner and member of the Board of Directors for the Mercado de Artisanías de La Línea.  As part of the conference, Tijuana electro-cumbia band Sonidero Travesura played a live audio intervention from the roof of the market.

Segments of the conversation were subsequently used to develop a workbook that was distributed to pedestrians at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, with exercises designed to continue dialogue about what the border was, what is, and what it will become. 

Responses collected after they were first distributed in September 2014, were superimposed to form a literal register of a collective experience of the border and the act of crossing it.

The complete audio recording and a bilingual transcript are available here.

As part of the binational public art project AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides), a special two-part iteration of Dialogue in Transit was organized. 
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For Part I. Border Soundscapes, Josh Kun and Geovanni Zamudio aka IOB (Intrepida Orquesta de Beats) joined us to speak about music that has delineated and blurred the US/Mexico border and shaped the Tijuana / Los Angeles soundscape.

For Part II. Border (Counter) Narratives Adrian Aranciaba + Kendy Rivera and Rafa Esparza joined us to speak about myths, anecdotes and stories that shape personal and collective understandings of the border.

Below is a full recording of the conversation with Josh Kun.