When the Electronic Disturbance Theater cast their project in relation to the “last mile” problem, they use a phrase more often applied to communications technologies, in particular the last portion of the distance between the communication network and the user, for example, DSL service or television cable. By using this same language to discuss the immigrant’s journey, the EDT upsets the economic logic of that framework by framing the stigmatized immigrant moving across the desert into the US economy int he framework of the highly profitable data connections flowing out from the communications industry. Or to put it another way, the commercial bottleneck and its own role in increasing desire and value now frames the relationship between the US and immigrants crossing the border. Immigrants become information, as the Dire Straits song puts it, “I want my MTV.”

Comment on this page