Border Optics
Surveillance Cultures on the US-Mexico Frontier
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20003861 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Camilla Fojas (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Publication date | 2021-06-08 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | BOOK |
| Venue | Border Optics (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | New York University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.18574/nyu/9781479806980.001.0001 |
| OpenAlex | W4206270095 |
| Open Library | OL34693861M |
| ISBN | 9781479806980 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
The US-Mexico border zone is one of the most visualized and imagined spaces in the United States, not just for the mythology of the Southwest as the cornerstone of US identity but as a place under continual crisis, permanent visibility, and territorial defense. Border Optics argues that the border is both a laboratory and an archive that indexes an optical regime and a way of seeing drawn from maps, geographical surveys, military strategic plans, illustrations, photographs, postcards, novels, film, and television—all of which combine fascination with the region with the visual codes of surveillance and survey. Optics signals a complete visual apparatus, from recording and representation to the infrastructure and institutions that support the visual regime. The border optic refers to the expanded vision of the border as a consequence of the interface of militarism, technology, and the media archive of the region. The primary aim of this complex of industry, state, and private endeavors is not simply enforcement but control, particularly of the movement of goods and people in accordance with the split codes of the border-security imaginary. This book explores several related cultural media and apparatuses that have shaped a dominant way of seeing informed by the history of the region. This includes a countervision apparent in revisionist border historical accounts, art, media, architectural design, and activist movements, along with the strains of subversion within the dominant view
Aesthetics · Art · Cornerstone · Geography · Identity (music) · Media studies · Mythology · Political science · Representation (politics) · Sociology · Subversion · The Imaginary · Visibility · Visual arts · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · emigration and immigration
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |