A narration of x-o.global: First steps towards the perversion of GPS in the tropical cartographies of Latin American migration

Abstract

Over the last ten years, the democratization of smartphones has become a vital factor in closing the ties between mobile technologies and migratory flows that entail cultural integration processes. Official reports published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) demonstrate how, for people in a context of mobility, smartphones represent not only an essential navigation tool, but also an almost sacred artifact providing emotional resilience to complete arduous journeys of forced displacement. x-o.global recognizes and addresses this situation by proposing an alternative usage of smartphones and the Global Positioning System (GPS) through a geolocative platform that enables interactive spaces for auditory stimulation. By inserting GPS-sensitive sound maps into sites offering humanitarian support across the Latin American migratory pathways, x-o.global enables interactive experiences connecting virtuality with reality. As a project uprooting from the grounds of socially engaged and cross-platform art-making, x-o.global's framework looks forward to instigating tropicalized processes capable of reprogramming global networks of technological control—such GPS—to overhaul the migratory crisis in The Americas.