When Mental Walls Lead to Physical Walls was an interactive public art installation for the April 6, 2018 First Friday in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix First Fridays are one of the largest monthly art walks in the United States and bring up to 20,000 visitors downtown each month.
The installation was created in collaboration with Darshan Karwat (Assistant Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University) and ASU engineering students Jorge, Cade Lortie, and Migle Varkalaite, with generous assistance from Lortie Construction and funding from the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and The Polytechnic School at Arizona State University.
Motivation & Guiding Questions
The installation was inspired by Darshan’s praxis of activist engineering and his essay Why Engineers Should Refuse to Work on Trump’s Wall responding to US companies who replied as interested vendors to the 2017 solicitations for proposals to design and build Trump’s border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
When Mental Walls Lead to Physical Walls
Cuando las Barreras Mentales se Convierten en Barreras Físicas
Further Reading
Installation Design
The installation consisted of an imposing 12’ tall and 16’ wide wall to provide a sense of scale for the minimum and desired heights for the proposed border wall (18 and 30 feet, respectively). One side of the wall contained a quote that illustrates how many engineering companies conceive of their work as distanced from social, political, and ecological contexts.
There could be a political backlash, but we are in business to make money and put people to work and provide a good service, whether it’s a wall or substation or airport or prison. We don’t want to approach it from a political standpoint, only from a business standpoint.
— George Ishee, national sales manager for Cast Lighting, based in Hawthorne, New Jersey, who responded as an interested vendor to the border wall solicitation.
The other side was designed to invoke an engineer’s sketches, idea, and other day-to-day technical work. According to Darshan, “separating these two sides [of the installation wall] is meant to represent the wall that engineers build in their heads between the technical work they do, and the lack of consideration of the impacts of their work.”
The Wall of Thoughts
One end of the wall was designated the Wall of Thoughts, where viewers were encouraged to share their responses to two questions:
1) What is the role of engineers and engineering in society? and
2) What would you like to ask or say to an engineer or company working on the US-Mexico border wall?
The Museum of Walls
The final component of the installation provided historical context to the contemporary debate surrounding the US-Mexico border wall. The Museum of Walls provided examples of border walls and barriers around the world, briefly summarized the historical development of the US-Mexico border and traced how the physical barriers changed over time (with a focus on a local Arizona border town), reproduced the specifications listed in the 2017 border wall solicitation, and displayed the recently unveiled border wall prototypes. All installation materials were displayed in English and Spanish, and accessibility copies were available for viewers with vision impairments. The content is reproduced below for reference.
Museum of Walls | Museo de los Muros
Museum of Walls: Separation and Border Barriers Around the World
Barreras y fronteras de el mundo
US-Mexico Border Fence
Barrera enre México y Estados Unidos
Berlin Wall, Germany
Muro de Berlin, Alemania
Peace Lines, Northern Ireland
Líneas de Paz, Irlanda del Norte
Hungary-Serbia Border Fence
Frontera entre Hungría y Servia
West Bank Barrier, Israel-Palestine
Barrera del Oeste, Israel-Palestina
Moroccan Wall (The Bern)
Muro de Marruecos
Spain-Morocco Border Fences
Frontera entre España y Marruecos
India-Bangladesh Border Fence
Cerca entre India y Bangladesh
Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
Zona desmilitarizada de Corea
Rio de Janeiro Favela Walls, Brazil
Muro de las Fabelas de Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
A Brief History of the US—Mexico Border
Timeline: Creating and Securing the US-Mexico Border
Un poco de la historia de la frontera entre US y Mexico
Línea del Tiempo: La creación y la proclamación de la frontera
Close to Home: the Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora Border
From Lines in the Sand to Border Barriers
Cerca de casa: Los Nogales, Arizona y Los Nogales, la frontera de Sonora.
De líneas en la arena a barreras en la frontera
Nogales Border, 1890
Frontera de los Nogales, 1980
Nogales Border, 1910-20
Frontera de Nogales, 1910-20
Nogales Border, 1950
Frontera de los Nogales, 1950
Nogales Border, 2009
Frontera de los Nogales, 2009
Nogales Border, 2015
Frontera de los Nogales, 2015
US-Mexico Border Barriers Today
The US-Mexico border is 1954 miles long. There are currently 654 miles of fencing along the border. Two-thirds of the border has no fencing at all. Only 354 miles have pedestrian fences in place, which are designed to deter migrants crossing by foot. The remaining 300 miles consist of 3-4 foot tall vehicle barriers. The images below show different types of fences and barriers currently in use.
La frontera entre Mexico y USA se extiende por un total de 1954 millas. Actualmente hay 654 millas de cerca/muro. Dos tercios de la frontera NO tienen ninguna barrera. Solo 354 millas tienen cerca para peatones que desanima a los migrantes de cruzar a pie. Las imágenes de abajo muestran diferentes tipos de rejas, cercas y muros que han sido utilizados.
Pedestrian Fences — Cerca peatonal
Landing Mat — Estera de metal
Wire Mesh — Cerca de alambre
Floating Fence — Reja flotante
Bollard Style — Estilo bolardo
Vehicle Barriers — Barreras para vehiculos
Normandie — Normadia
Post & Rail — Reja & poste
US Customs and Border Patrol Border Wall Proposals
Specifications for Wall Proposals
Especificaciones para las propuestas de muros
Prototype Designs: Solid Concrete Wall
Prototype designs in San Diego, CA from US Customs and Border Patrol solicitations for Solid Concrete Wall (solicitation number HSBP1017R0022)
Caddell Construction
Fisher Sand & Gravel Co.
Texas Sterling Construction Company
W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company
Prototype Designs: Other Materials
Prototype designs in San Diego, CA from US Customs and Border Patrol solicitations for Other Border Wall (solicitation number HSBP1017R0023)
KWR Construction Inc.
W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company
Caddell Construction
ELTA North America Inc.
All content (including photographs and text) on this site ©2024–2025 Aliya Hoff-Vanoni. All Rights Reserved. Do not use or reproduce without written permission.