Sorrow, Aesthetic Unsettlement, and Sonic Rupture in the Mexico-US Borderlands

Chapter 4 introduces the notion of carnalities in a photographic context connected to the crossing of the Mexico-US border. Photographs showing objects found near the remains of migrants who perished in the desert are read as carnal and become archives of feeling. Listening to photographs, as suggested by Tina Campt, reveals these photographs of objects as transmitters of sorrow and as pointing to the humanity of migrants. Through an analysis informed by Alfred Frankowski's interpretation of W. E. B. Du Bois's reading of the Sorrow Songs, these photographs can be understood as pointing to a broken present. The chapter then elaborates a view of aesthetic unsettlement inspired by Monique Roelofs's relational aesthetics. Through an interpretation of the exhibit Border Cantos by Richard Misrach and Guillermo Galindo, aesthetic unsettlement is understood as a disruption, destabilization, or interruption of expected perceptions or ready-made affective responses prompted by creative processes or artworks.