Amy Sanchez Arteaga

Border Blaster Sound / Sonido Truena Fronteras

The Artist

Through embodied research and experimental sonic practices, Cognate Collective explores how people sustain relationships, share cultural traditions, and build a sense of belonging across divides. Shaped by life along and across the San Diego–Tijuana border, as well as family histories of textile production, migration, and binational celebrations, their practice creates opportunities for gathering, reflection, and joy. Community members help shape this work through dialogue and creative exchange. The resulting collaborative projects, which include sound installations, radio broadcasts, and public sculptures, invite people to reimagine everyday experiences through music, poetry and storytelling.

Amy Y. Sanchez

The Project

Cognate Collective – Amy Sanchez Arteaga and her collaborator Misael Diaz – will create Border Blaster Sound / Sonido Truena Fronteras, a mobile sound system designed to bring communities together through music, poetry, storytelling, and dance across the San Diego–Tijuana region. The project will feature custom-built, stackable speakers inspired by outdoor sound-system traditions from Jamaica, Mexico, and Colombia. Through workshops in National City, Oceanside, and Tijuana, community members will help design and embroider the speakers’ fabric fronts. Each will reflect local stories and imagery; assembled together, they will form a collective portrait of the region. Three planned public gatherings will give the sound system different roles: an intergenerational exchange of stories and song dedications in National City; an immersive listening experience using Indigenous instruments and local environmental recordings in Oceanside; and a celebration of migrant experiences and cultures in Tijuana. Drawing on the artists’ family histories of textile work and cross-border gatherings, the project explores how sound can sustain connections and create a sense of home. Audio, photographs, and video from the events are planned for a concluding gallery presentation. The sound system will remain available for future community collaborations beyond the project.

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