Recent Posts
Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:
Africa anxiety art award Baltic States boat people border border control borders Brexit Bulgaria crisis crisisi criticism death Eastern Europe enlargement EU Eurasia Europe European Commission European Council European Parliament European Union externalization France Freud fringes frontier frontiers governance heaven Hungary illusion images installation integration Iron Lady Italy John Terry kosovo land art Mediterranean migrants migration music neighbourhood Nobel package pandemic peace performance photography Poland popular culture prayer Putin Raphael remote control review Romania Russia Sarkozi Schengen Schengen blues schengen sarkozi Senegal snub Thatcher theatre Ukraine video Villepinte visa visual
Blogs I Follow
Schengenalia on FB!

Schengenalia on FB!
Search for:

All posts tagged frontiers

Schengen on social media: some (very preliminary) data

It’s been a rough year for Schengen, Europe’s free travel area. The refugee crisis that hit the continent over the summer of 2015 (but that had been brewing for quite some time…) triggered widespread panic and collective hysteria among Europeans. Draconian measures have been imposed at Europe’s external frontiers, while internal border checks have been reintroduced in an ever growing number of countries… Schengen, often hailed as one of the most iconic symbols of European integration, seems to be on the verge of collapse. In this rather gloomy context, Europeans (be it politicians and the population at large) are becoming more and more pessimistic about the future of continental border-free travel, if they are not actively conjuring its ultimate demise… That’s the picture in Europe (or at least how I see it), but what about elsewhere? What do people around the world think of Schengen? European borders have been a lot in the news recently, but has this newly found visibility translated into active engagement (or any engagement at all) with what not that long ago was a very obscure topic that only few nerdish aficionados beyond Europe (that includes me) would mention in a conversation (virtual or not)? Your very own Schengenizer is trying to find out! Between August 2015 and July 2016 I have been monitoring social media (i.e. twitter) activity by private individuals (so not media or official sources) located outside Europe who mentioned Schengen in their tweets. Here are some very preliminary results, which cover the number of tweets produced over time and a sentiment analysis of their content (NB: a special thank to Syeda Amberin for compiling the data and concocting the Python code!) . More to come, together with the analysis of the data and methodological clarifications (so, for the time being, don’t quote me on this!).

Schengen beyond Europe – Twitter presence (August 2015- July 2016)

Schengen on Twitter – Sentiment analysis (August 2015-July 2016)

Schengen on twitter – Overall sentiment outside Europe (August 2015-July 2016)

***

Mapping Schengen Art – Part VI

Here is the sixth instalment of Schengen border art, an ongoing project in which I map the multifarious ways in which the Old Continent’ (real and imaginary) frontiers have been represented/performed/subverted.

White Crosses – Centre for Political Beauty (Art installation, 2014)

http://www.politicalbeauty.com/wall.html

Bordergame – National Theatre Wales (2014, live/online performance, role-play)

http://nationaltheatrewales.org/bordergame

Borrando La Barda/Erasing the Border – Ana Teresa Fernandez (2001, visual performance)

EU-MAN – European Union Migrant Artists Network (1997)

http://www.eu-man.org/index.htm

And to conclude, some Schengen pop culinaria…

Schengen Restaurant – Delhi

The Indian Schengen

Echoes of Europe in a review of Delhi’s Schengen restaurant:

“Schengen is unmissable, with its bright lights, all-white exterior… (…). Yet as you enter there is a nagging sense that there is way too much space. (…) Schengen is a massive space to fill…”

Mapping Europe’s border art – a project

Art and other creative expressions about European borders have been a recurrent theme in this blog. So much so that I have decided to launch a new side project specifically dealing with this topic. After all, isn’t the end of the year a time for new resolutions? The tentative title of this endeveour is ‘Schengen border art’, and I am planning to develop it in the upcoming months. The goal is to map contemporary artistic performances whose main subject is the Old Continent’s frontiers, be it the ‘real’ boundary demarcations in the political, social, economic realms or their imagined projections, and in the people who cross, build or challenge them on a daily basis. These artistic performances can take different forms: from novels, poems and paintings to photographs, videos, sculptures, land art, simulations, installations, theatrical and other types of ‘live’ performances. The number of these artistic expressions has mushroomed in recent years as a result of the growing interest in (and controversy over) Europe’s borders and their management. Below you will find a preview of this body of work. And stay tuned for updates on this project!

After Schengen – Ignacio Evangelista (2013)