The Migrants - Public Workshop

The Migrants is a video game and a multi-channel performance from 2014 that is based on the real migration routes of birds. Due to global warming, the Golden Warbler faced storms on the coast of Florida, which used to be their main destination. This caused the birds to alter their migratory routes exploring alternative ways through Mexico and Central America before finally arriving in Colombia. The performance, produced by Colombian artists Atractor Studio, uses the Indigenous approach of adopting the perspective of the animal. A prosthesis allows the performers/players to assume the role of the main character in the game who must overcome obstacles: walls, electric fences, communication aerials, and pollution. The Migrants can be experienced in the form of a video, a live performance, and an interactive video game. The video version is available online at the CULTURESCAPES DIGITAL SPACE. On the screens, we see the bird's perspective on the journey from a forest in Canada to the mountains of Tolemaida in Colombia. The performers have to follow the route while collecting food for themselves and their flock in an attempt not to die during the long journey. It is also crucial to understand that throughout this trip, the bird is a seed disperser, a forest weaver. The bird recovers and feeds ecological niches. In this context, “The Migrants” encourages reflection on the complexity of migration and massive displacements within the human sphere, but also the cultural and social fabrics that result from it. The workshop Can technology generate empathic bridges between the species? This workshop addresses the possibilities of electronic art to offer other uses of new technologies that aim to understand the surrounding worlds of other species with whom we share the planet. Tools such as the Internet Of Things, development platforms, or Computer Vision (Artificial Intelligence) can be helpful to think about sustainability and coexistence.  During the workshop, participants and the artists will use mechanical and electronic rapid prototyping techniques to build interactive structures on the human body. Experimenting with basic construction materials, participants will devise mechanisms augmented with sensors and actuators to transform the perception and morphology of the body. About the artists Atractor Studio is a group of artists who work with mechanical, electronic, and computer engineering techniques from the arts field. They focus on the visualization of natural phenomena, as well as mathematical and scientific paradigms related not only to the hegemonic Western culture but also to other, for example, Indigenous ways of knowledge production.