UC Santa Cruz

Global (re)Entry is a 2D game and video/sound installation that takes a critical and parodic look at the Global Entry program designed by the US Customs and Border Protection agency. While players can play the game to learn more about unfair border control strategies and oppressive state policies targeting immigrants, they can also fictionally redesign discriminatory US immigration forms and generate pro-immigrant, antiracist manifestos. In this thesis, I argue that Global (re)Entry moves beyond a representational goal and instead facilitates a critical intervention in the failing US immigration system. Borrowing from pertinent discourses on activist art, new media, queer of color critique, and critical surveillance studies, I contend the project actively encourages a closer look at systems through which social, political, and civic ostracization of immigrants is perpetuated. Moreover, Global (re)Entry invites players to formulate a utopian vision of society based in equality, fairness, and inclusion.