The Art of Crossing Borders: Migrant Rights and Academic Freedom

Ricardo Dominguez, Professor of New Media , Performance Art, and a Principal Investigator at CALIT2 at the University of California, San Diego, specializes in electronic civil disobedience as an art form. In January, 2010, he was placed under university investigation for misuse of research funds, a charge that could have resulted in his termination. At issue was the work of his research organizations, b.a.n.g. lab (for “bits, atoms, neurons, genes”) and his Electronic Disturbance Theater. Dominguez directed these organizations in creating the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a program that could allow immigrants to use cheap cell phones to find water caches in the desert between Mexico and southern California and access survival poetry. Before the investigation was completed, several congressmen would demand punitive action and anti-immigrant pundits on cable news networks were demanding Dominguez be fired. Louis Warren sat down with Ricardo Dominguez to find out what happened.