Boundaries Without Borders

Untroduction: Future Without Borders

The other day, I went to a beach. It was windy, so there weren’t many people. Some beaches in Mexico have public areas with umbrellas made from palm trees, offering shade to whoever needs it. My wife and I sat under one to rest.

After a while, a girl showed up and sat next to us—really close, maybe two meters away. I felt uncomfortable. Not because of her, exactly, but because of the space. The invisible line between where I ended and she began.

It made me think about boundaries and borders—the ones we inherit, the ones we enforce, and the ones that dissolve when the wind erases footprints in the sand. Public and private. Claimed and unclaimed. The edge of comfort, the blur of belonging.

What happens in a future without borders?

Where does one presence end and another begin?

What if we are all just shifting outlines in the sand, momentary configurations of space and sound, before the tide carries us elsewhere?

This is not an introduction. It is an opening.

The other day, I was thinking about boundaries. About a future without the state, a figure without a border. I imagined what that would be like.

I understand that boundaries are important, but that thought led me down a rabbit hole—what is the difference between a boundary and a border?

Maybe borders are like castles, built to protect and to keep others away. Fixed, rigid, enclosing. While boundaries feel more fluid, more like currents than walls. They aren’t there to guard as much as to shape. A river doesn’t ask permission to flow, yet it still carves its path.

So what happens when we move beyond borders but still honor boundaries? A world where edges exist, but they breathe. Where sovereignty isn’t about control, but about knowing where we stand, where we flow, and how we meet others in that movement.

The difference between boundaries and borders is subtle but important, especially in different contexts:

• Boundaries are more fluid and conceptual. They define limits within relationships, identities, or spaces and can be personal, cultural, or energetic. Boundaries are often about self-regulation and mutual understanding rather than strict division. They can shift over time and are maintained through awareness and communication.

• Borders are typically physical or political lines that mark divisions between places, such as countries or territories. They are often enforced externally through rules, laws, or barriers. Borders tend to be more rigid, though they can change due to geopolitical shifts.

In your work, boundaries might relate more to the fluid, evolving spaces you create—between myth and reality, sound and silence, participation and observation—whereas borders might symbolize thresholds or liminal spaces you consciously navigate, dissolve, or reconstruct through your art.

So that lead me thinking of future where we move from states to gardens.