A sequel to Porosity Valley, Portable Holes (2017), this speculative fiction revolves around the recent arrival of Yemeni refugees in Korea. The event has evoked a nationwide anti-Islamic sentiment and xenophobia, which portray migrants as sorts of malware or viruses that threaten the immune system (this could also be considered a “pure blood mythology”). All of a sudden they have become fictitious.
This piece expands upon the previous work through a fictionalized depiction of the migration of the mineral/data cluster known as Petra Genetrix. Juxtaposing refugee migration with data migration, both of which characterize migration in the 21st century, the work creates an imaginary space-time by interrogating the “ways of existence” and the “ways of representation” of the Yemeni refugees who recently arrived in South Korea. Next, further scenes unfold with biopolitical control, as experienced by Petra, and with the cloud migration that takes place during data transmission. Reflected here is the state of affairs in which refugees are treated as a kind of malware.
However, the concept of solid ground and borders – crossed by migrants, refugees, minerals, and data – starts to crumble. This is due to the movement of tectonic plates, which are themselves eternally moving and migrating subjects. In this sense, the work is a reflection of earth and its strata, the movements of its different agents, and the boundaries and symbiotic relations that impede or facilitate their movement.

Synopsis:
At the end of Porosity Valley, Portable Holes (2017), Petra has merged with its own clone and been transported into a dimension that transcends time and space. It awakens to find itself dropped on the shoreline of an island known as “Crypto Valley.” The island is home to numerous minerals/data fragments that are now adrift, having lost their homes for different reasons. It is a land of boundaries, neither “here” nor “there” – an island, in other words. Petra once again experiences a migration review, facing authorities who regard migrants as equivalent to aliens or viruses. Failing its review, Petra gets confined to the “Smart Grid” that serves as an alien detention center, but after encountering a visual/auditory hallucination there, it escapes, following a beckoning voice to the island’s center. There, within the caverns, it encounters the Mother Rock, a data center or ancient cloud and transcendent presence that has existed in this place for eons….

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