full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ronald Rael: An architect's subversive reimagining of the US-Mexico border wall

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Isn't it fascinating how the simple act of drawing a line on the map can transform the way we see and eeeipcnrxe the world? And how those spaces in between lines, borders, become places. They become places where language and food and music and people of different celtuurs rub up against each other in beautiful and sometimes violent and occasionally really ridiculous ways. And those lines drawn on a map can actually create scars in the lancpadse, and they can create scars in our mmiereos.

My interest in borders came about when I was searching for an architecture of the borderlands. And I was working on several projects along the US-Mexico border, designing buildings made out of mud taken right from the ground. And I also work on pjocrtes that you might say immigrated to this landscape. "Prada mafra," a land-art stcpurlue that crosses the border between art and architecture, and it demonstrated to me that architecture could cuinmmatoce ideas that are much more ptaililcoly and culturally complex, that architecture could be sraiciatl and serious at the same time and it could speak to the dstriaeiips between wealth and poverty and what's local and what's foreign.

Open Cloze


Isn't it fascinating how the simple act of drawing a line on the map can transform the way we see and __________ the world? And how those spaces in between lines, borders, become places. They become places where language and food and music and people of different ________ rub up against each other in beautiful and sometimes violent and occasionally really ridiculous ways. And those lines drawn on a map can actually create scars in the _________, and they can create scars in our ________.

My interest in borders came about when I was searching for an architecture of the borderlands. And I was working on several projects along the US-Mexico border, designing buildings made out of mud taken right from the ground. And I also work on ________ that you might say immigrated to this landscape. "Prada _____," a land-art _________ that crosses the border between art and architecture, and it demonstrated to me that architecture could ___________ ideas that are much more ___________ and culturally complex, that architecture could be _________ and serious at the same time and it could speak to the ___________ between wealth and poverty and what's local and what's foreign.

Solution


  1. projects
  2. memories
  3. sculpture
  4. disparities
  5. experience
  6. marfa
  7. cultures
  8. communicate
  9. landscape
  10. satirical
  11. politically

Original Text


Isn't it fascinating how the simple act of drawing a line on the map can transform the way we see and experience the world? And how those spaces in between lines, borders, become places. They become places where language and food and music and people of different cultures rub up against each other in beautiful and sometimes violent and occasionally really ridiculous ways. And those lines drawn on a map can actually create scars in the landscape, and they can create scars in our memories.

My interest in borders came about when I was searching for an architecture of the borderlands. And I was working on several projects along the US-Mexico border, designing buildings made out of mud taken right from the ground. And I also work on projects that you might say immigrated to this landscape. "Prada Marfa," a land-art sculpture that crosses the border between art and architecture, and it demonstrated to me that architecture could communicate ideas that are much more politically and culturally complex, that architecture could be satirical and serious at the same time and it could speak to the disparities between wealth and poverty and what's local and what's foreign.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
border patrol 6
create scars 2
border wall 2
united states 2
throwing rocks 2
patrol agents 2
permanent feature 2
patrol agent 2
building walls 2
native american 2
average size 2
wall cuts 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
border patrol agents 2
border patrol agent 2

Important Words


  1. act
  2. architecture
  3. art
  4. beautiful
  5. border
  6. borderlands
  7. borders
  8. buildings
  9. communicate
  10. complex
  11. create
  12. crosses
  13. culturally
  14. cultures
  15. demonstrated
  16. designing
  17. disparities
  18. drawing
  19. drawn
  20. experience
  21. fascinating
  22. food
  23. foreign
  24. ground
  25. ideas
  26. immigrated
  27. interest
  28. landscape
  29. language
  30. line
  31. lines
  32. local
  33. map
  34. marfa
  35. memories
  36. mud
  37. music
  38. occasionally
  39. people
  40. places
  41. politically
  42. poverty
  43. projects
  44. ridiculous
  45. rub
  46. satirical
  47. scars
  48. sculpture
  49. searching
  50. simple
  51. spaces
  52. speak
  53. time
  54. transform
  55. violent
  56. ways
  57. wealth
  58. work
  59. working
  60. world