Seeker
Description
Artist Statement
The Seeker installation uses three large projections to explore migration, territorial boundaries, conflict commodities and human displacement. Seeker's interactive component enables participants to map their own personal family migration history. Making a contribution allows access to a visualisation of all accumulated maps. The most recent vectors are drawn first, followed gradually by the vectors of previous participants. An alternative animated visualisation can be accessed by the viewer where elegant curves represent the distance each generation has travelled.
Another screen shows panning satellite imagery of cities overlaid with moving text of harvested news feeds. The text describes incidents where people have died attempting to seek refuge in another country. The third screen consists of animated curves representing population migration data, and the effect conflict resources such as tantalum, diamonds and oil have had on the displacement of people. The animations are overlaid onto vast empty landscape images from Africa, Australia and India.
Over time the three screens begin a silent conversation with one another as the viewer makes connections between issues of personal migration, conflict resources and the way human displacement is represented in the global media.
Source of Artist Statement
The Seeker installation uses three large projections to explore migration, territorial boundaries, conflict commodities and human displacement. Seeker's interactive component enables participants to map their own personal family migration history. Making a contribution allows access to a visualisation of all accumulated maps. The most recent vectors are drawn first, followed gradually by the vectors of previous participants. An alternative animated visualisation can be accessed by the viewer where elegant curves represent the distance each generation has travelled.
Another screen shows panning satellite imagery of cities overlaid with moving text of harvested news feeds. The text describes incidents where people have died attempting to seek refuge in another country. The third screen consists of animated curves representing population migration data, and the effect conflict resources such as tantalum, diamonds and oil have had on the displacement of people. The animations are overlaid onto vast empty landscape images from Africa, Australia and India.
Over time the three screens begin a silent conversation with one another as the viewer makes connections between issues of personal migration, conflict resources and the way human displacement is represented in the global media.
Source of Artist Statement
Creator
Starrs, Josephine
Cmielewski, Leon
Date
2006
Rights
Copyright Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski. The copyright of images posted on the ADELTA Website belongs to third parties and is included on this website by permission from copyright holders. Apart from any use permitted by the Copyright Act 1968 (including fair dealing) the images may not be downloaded, adapted, remixed, printed, emailed, stored in a cache or otherwise reproduced without the written permission from the copyright holder.
Citation
Starrs, Josephine and Cmielewski, Leon, “Seeker,” ADELTA, accessed April 24, 2024, http://adelta.westernsydney.edu.au/items/show/225.