Immigration is Navigation: 1

For a class called Ephemeral Landscapes taught by Katya Crawford, my team (Eric Santti, York Seiler and myself) have designed an installation that reimagines a generic border as more than just a two-dimensional line and instead as a three-dimensional volume. The piece will be an 80-foot long channel in the earth, made from steel bar stock and lit from within by diffused LEDs. Just below the top edge will be a single layer of flat stones, each died and imprinted with the graphic symbol of a compass, an emblem of navigation to a strange places. As these attractive stones are inevitably gathered up by the viewers, acting as participants, they will each travel to different homes in Albuquerque and, over time, further afield. Thus the stones represent immigration as they spread, travel, and rest in new places, integrating into a new community. 

Initial rendering, mostly by York Seiler, showing illuminated channel at night. 

The bar stock arrived today; 1/8" ribbons of steel.