Photography

Contributing Photographers for FRONTERA sponsored by the World Building Institute: University of Southern California

The most powerful stories occur at points crackling with tension, such as international borders. The US-Mexico border area – the frontera – is both the world’s busiest border and a vibrant engine of international, intercultural and entrepreneurial growth, powered in part by women who, despite considerable personal risk, are forging their own futures.

On October 21-22, 2016, thought leaders, domain experts, students and storytellers will assemble in San Diego and Tijuana for Frontera: Women of the Wall, a world building summit from the USC World Building Institute, Pigeon Hole Productions, and Cali Baja, to learn how such liminal areas anywhere in the world can thrive – and what we stand to lose in an all-too-possible isolationist future.

As with previous workshops in Berlin, Bogota and Los Angeles investigating migration and global climate change, participants will apply the narrative processes of world building to address real world problems. Using a blend of the world building process pioneered by World Building Institute director, award-winning film designer and USC professor Alex McDowell RDI with gameplay from design studio Pigeon Hole Productions, participants will imagine the frontera in 2035. This collaborative process will inspire tangible, near-term action through humans’ love of story, with the event filmed and documented to bring our message to a generation of humanity on the move.

The World Building Institute is a cutting edge USC non-profit Organized Research Unit dedicated to the dissemination, education, and appreciation of the future of narrative media through World Building.