TORP
TORP
Speculative design, 2018
TORP is a speculative toolkit for establishing small extrajudicial territories within the boundaries of any US port. This toolkit is designed to provide visa-less seafarers the opportunity to dwell on land, with both feet firmly on solid ground.
The TORP kit includes plastic water containers, chalk liner, right angle, tape measure, flags, heat blanket, bristle brush, ground stake, and corded twine
Brief:
Design a site-specific ‘filter’ that bridges virtual and physical worlds
Operative question:
How might our political economy under neoliberal globalization be made more concrete or tangible through the lens of infrastructure space?
TORP logo, based on the Port of Oakland logo and the octagonal concrete benches at Port View Park
TORP is an acronym for Territory of Radical Potentiality, as well as an anagram for Port. TORP imagines a future world in which the necessity of social reproductive labor has been fully abstracted from the drive, on the part of global corporations, to generate ever more surplus value. A kernel of this future is exemplified by seafarer labor and the global flow of commodities at the Port of Oakland: one’s citizenship status (an immaterial concept) and ability to navigate bureaucracy determine one’s ability to physically traverse material borders.
Water postcard filled with seawater. This artifact imagines a world in which loved ones collect, carry, and exchange water from different regions with one another
Background
Today, many container ships transport at least one crew member who lacks a US D-1 visa, who is therefore barred from taking shore leave on US soil. Though they may spend up to 11 months aboard their ship, they are unable to take part in the everyday activities associated with docking at an overseas port: doing errands, calling family members, checking email. The workers who are instrumental in keeping capitalism in motion are physically confined by immaterial barriers of international border law.
Posters indicating the precise location and site conditions of TORP Oakland
Kits include a risographed pamphlet with instructions for establishing a new TORP
