INSPECTED
Have you ever had something seized during the U.S. agriculture inspection at the airport in Puerto Rico? How did that feel?
Share Your Inspection StoryScroll
INSPECTED is a public art project
tracing the memory and design of the airport sticker labeling Puerto Ricans “INSPECTED” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
In this U.S. territory, organic goods leaving are inspected or seized for being “threatening” to American agriculture, while those entering are not.
In this U.S. territory, organic goods leaving are inspected or seized for being “threatening” to American agriculture, while those entering are not.
Many Puerto Ricans know the feeling of having a fruit, plant or homemade meal seized before traveling—and have a sticker lingering somewhere to show for it.
Through a WhatsApp voice note archive of inspection stories, multichannel installation, mixtape, and guerrilla sticker campaign, INSPECTED:
- Archives and shares stories of inspection (and resistance)
- Dissects the sticker’s colonial design process
- Re-designs the sticker with an anticolonial message plastered on surfaces across Puerto Rico, it’s diaspora, and the world.
INSPECTED WhatsApp Archive
This archive is a collection of unnamed voicenotes from Puerto Ricans
about their experiences with USDA inspection and seizure at the airport.
These stories will be made publicly available on our website, and
potentially used in INSPECTED’s installation and mixtape.
INSPECTED Story 1: She Lost Her Carne Mecha
How to Share Your Inspection Story
- Read these details about consent and our use of your voice note.
- Read the guiding questions below to get your thoughts flowing.
- Click the yellow button and send your voice note on WhatsApp.
- Send us a photo or scan of your sticker if you have one.
- Forward our WhatsApp to someone you know!
Voice Note
Guiding Questions
- What was the organic item taken?
- Where did you get it or who gave it to you?
- Were you bringing the organic item to someone else?
- How did it feel to have it taken?
- What do you think was the purpose of it being taken?
- What did this inspection teach you about Puerto Rico’s relationship to the U.S.?
- What has resistance to inspection looked like?
- What are your earliest memories of the inspection sticker?
- What does the word “INSPECTED” mean to you as a Puerto Rican?
- What do you do with the stickers? Are they still
on your bag? Have they traveled with you? Do you remove them?
Consent & Use of Your Voice Note
- Shared on the Estorbo Público Studio website
- Included in installations, films, exhibitions, and public programming in Puerto Rico, New York, London, and elsewhere globally
- Edited, excerpted, remixed, subtitled, or layered with other voices for artistic purposes
- Included in the INSPECTED mixtape and future project materials
Your voice note may be:
We will not share your name, phone number, or identifying details unless you explicitly allow us to (and we will ask first).
However, your voice may be recognizable, and complete anonymity cannot be guaranteed. In addition, stories about transporting items the USDA prohibits may be interpreted as accounts of illegal activity. While we will take care to reduce recognizability and securely store your data, we cannot guarantee protection from third-party interpretation or use.
Please only share what you feel comfortable making public.
By sending a voice note, you grant the INSPECTED studio permission to use your voice note, photos and scans for artistic, research, and public presentation purposes.
You can withdraw your consent at any time by texting us “OPT OUT” on WhatsApp, and your voice note will be removed from future uses of the archive (to the extent possible for works already published or exhibited).
If you are sharing someone else’s story, please make sure you have their consent first.
Credit National Archives (photos no. 463-CD-0118_2 (edited), 463-CD-0118_16, 463-CD-0126_48, 463-CD-0126_2, 463-CD-0128_9)