Visual Culture Program

LOCATION: Armory Center for the Arts (145 North Raymond Ave., Pasadena, CA 91103)

In this panel, artists and immigrant rights advocates will discuss how words, images, technology, collective action, and the law impact the U.S. border in California. It is presented in conjunction with Hillary Mushkin's project "Three Border Ecologies," one of 28 artworks in the exhibition, Calafia: Manifesting the Terrestrial Paradise, at the Armory Center for the Arts. The exhibition title refers to a legendary sixteenth-century novel about a mythical California populated entirely by women and ruled by the great black queen Calafia. The text serves as a point of departure for the exhibition curators to bring together artworks that examine the contemporary territory of California.

Each panelist will provide a brief overview of their work, followed by a panel discussion. Exhibition co-curator Ed Gomez will speak about the research that inspired the exhibition. Marcela Nunez-Alvarez, will speak about Alianza Comunitaria's work that uses crowdsourcing and social media to map checkpoints in north San Diego County. Ian Philabaum will talk about Innovation Law Lab's crowdsourcing software that allows immigration rights lawyers to create a collective picture of the immigration landscape.

The Caltech-Huntington Program in Visual Culture, which is funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and based in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), features undergraduate course offerings, guest lecturers, and other programming to foster conversations between humanists and scientists. Its activities are organized by HSS and other Caltech faculty in collaboration with scholars at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.