The Transborder Immigrant Tool is a cell phone hack produced by the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT)/b.a.n.g. lab, a performance art-cum-activist organization (see: cross-pollination) based at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at the University of California in San Diego. It was developed in 2009 to assist individuals crossing the US-Mexico border – a harsh desert environment notorious for the volume of its crossings and the number of individuals who have perished during the attempted journey. Taking a cheap and readily available cell phone, equipped with a built-in GPS applet, members of the organization co-opted the program and rewrote its code to establish a basic compass-like navigation system capable of directing users to water left by volunteer groups and medical help centers (see: 1:1 scale). In the early stages of the project’s development, members of the group distributed these code-enabled cell phones directly on both sides of the border. Built-in to the program are a series of poems by Amy Sara Carroll; meditations featuring anecdotal advice for how to manage exposure to the sun, dehydration, and desert snakes, while also conserving energy in the extreme heat (see: artistic competence).