PERCEPCIÓN
PECULIAR
A Virtual Gallery Featuring Bicultural Explorations
by Creatives of the San Diego/Tijuana Region
What is Percepción Peculiar?
Percepción Peculiar is the series of images that we form through a perception—as reflected in our visual work—of everything that surrounds us culturally and socially in this incredibly distinct territory that we share.
This perception depends on what surrounds us: the stimuli and reference points that allow us to create, classify, and order our sensory experiences into categories. It is how we make sense of our lives and our realities. Everything constructs our collective vision of our world, grounded in this bicultural territory where we find ourselves.
We are aware that border thinking has been studied within a variety of different disciplines and at different moments in the visual history of the region. In light of this and rooted in our own professional field, we think it worthwhile to survey the graphic design and illustration work of the period from 2010 through 2020; this is a representative overview of regional talent, recognized as a collective of individuals. This selection allows us to observe and reflect on the work in all its geographic and semantic specificity, that is, taking into consideration the multiplicity of possible interpretations.
This unique territory where we live is, of course, the result of exchange between the two countries, traversed on a daily basis and permeating one another. What is so distinct is this region’s development and social configuration, its languages, linguistic mutations, cultural appropriation, political deliberations, the experience of border crossing and culinary, visual, and artistic explorations.
Percepción Peculiar is everything that we have to say, out of our own experience of having grown up or lived on either side of the border. What we have accomplished within or outside it, above or below it. To address how this has influenced us on a personal level, in our work, as creatives and artists.
WHAT IS
PERCEPCIÓN
PECULIAR?
Percepción Peculiar is the series of images that we form through a perception—as reflected in our visual work—of everything that surrounds us culturally and socially in this incredibly distinct territory that we share.
This perception depends on what surrounds us: the stimuli and reference points that allow us to create, classify, and order our sensory experiences into categories. It is how we make sense of our lives and our realities. Everything constructs our collective vision of our world, grounded in this bicultural territory where we find ourselves.
We are aware that border thinking has been studied within a variety of different disciplines and at different moments in the visual history of the region. In light of this and rooted in our own professional field, we think it worthwhile to survey the graphic design and illustration work of the period from 2010 through 2020; this is a representative overview of regional talent, recognized as a collective of individuals. This selection allows us to observe and reflect on the work in all its geographic and semantic specificity, that is, taking into consideration the multiplicity of possible interpretations.
This unique territory where we live is, of course, the result of exchange between the two countries, traversed on a daily basis and permeating one another. What is so distinct is this region’s development and social configuration, its languages, linguistic mutations, cultural appropriation, political deliberations, the experience of border crossing and culinary, visual, and artistic explorations.
Percepción Peculiar is everything that we have to say, out of our own experience of having grown up or lived on either side of the border. What we have accomplished within or outside it, above or below it. To address how this has influenced us on a personal level, in our work, as creatives and artists.
VIRTUAL GALLERY
PANEL
This Side of the Border
Dialogues on Bicultural Transit, Life, and Design
Our goal in curating Percepción Peculiar was to foment dialogue that amplifies broad and diverse visions of what it means to live near the border. To that end, we organized a panel that seeked to start a conversation about our distinct perspectives in regards to moving around this border region, living in it and creating our work here. We started with three questions: How do you define the Tijuana-San Diego region? How do you define your own work? How is the geographical context of the Tijuana-San Diego region reflected in your work?
The panelists were designers and illustrators Franco Rosas, Fio Zenjim, Katalina Silva, and Arturo Elenes. The moderator was Dr. Norma Iglesias Prieto, an academic whose work focuses on trans-border issues.
The panel was held on September 10, 2020 from 12-1pm through zoom. You can listen to the discussion
Dra. Norma Iglesias Prieto
Académica transfronteriza con una educación interdisciplinaria. Desde el 2000 es profesora en la Universidad Estatal de San Diego. Trabajó durante 22 años en El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Tijuana). Tiene 38 años de experiencia académica en estudios culturales en la frontera entre México y Estados Unidos. Desarrolló el concepto de “fronteridades” para comprender los diferentes significados de frontera. Es autora de una larga lista de libros, capítulos de libros, artículos en revistas académicas y catálogos de arte. Su último trabajo curatorial fue la exposición multisitio “Grabado Chicano/a/x. Hacer impresiones y hacer historia. 50 años de activismo artístico” (2020).
Enigma Creative is a space for multidisciplinary collaboration. They are passionate about what they do and what they believe.
They love all forms of creative expression and bring all of those forms to communication strategy work, creating a distinct voice similar to a digital fingerprint: unique and impossible to replicate.
They are driven by a spirit of teamwork, as they invest in ideas that make our community stronger and more powerful.
PERCEPCIÓN PECULIAR
Within the framework of San Diego Design Week Presented by the Mingei International Museum 9 - 13 September 2020.
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