'MIGRATION CRISIS AROUND THE GLOBE'
IMMIGRANTS ARE HUMAN BEINGS TOO!
https://editor.p5js.org/shivanjaliverma/present/V1f_b4AcW - Refer to this link to use my experimental camera.
My idea for ‘Experimental Camera’ assignment came from the subject I was taught in my ‘Design for the Century’ class about global migration crisis. I felt that there is not much attention given to this topic. Being an immigrant in some country is difficult and sometimes you go through lot of problems at the border. I studied my undergraduate course in England, when I first went there I was only 19 years old. There were some problems and criticisms that I encountered with, but life is not perfect and sometimes we have to stand on our toes and face it. There are not many things you can do to avoid the laws of another country. But there are many people, who illegally migrate by from neighbouring countries that doesn’t have strong economy or financial background. Not only the money is an issue for these people, but in countries like Syria, Lebanon, Jordan Iraq where there have been bombings or civil wars, violence or persecution, people cross international borders as refugees or asylum seekers, end up seeking for jobs to give their children better opportunities for education and smooth life.
It is overwhelming to even think about the struggle and obstacles immigrants come across. Due to the lack of visibility on this topic, the migrants have been tremendously affected by the laws and limitations of the countries. It is sad to learn from the reading that thousands of people die or go missing by fleeing from Central America through Arizona Desert crossing the borders to enter the US, or many people migrating from Africa due to poverty, many from Arabic countries such as Syria, Iraq and Yemen where millions of people have displaced due to armed conflicts and violence.
The social impact campaign lead by Lina Srivastava, aimed to humanize and universalize the migration stories. The conditions behind their migration is mostly due to the lack of good educational opportunities, persecution, weak economy, politics, and poor water access system or other facilities. People seem to aspire to work with their potentials and have normal life. The life in Central America is dependent mostly on agriculture and due to the climatic changes people in the past have ushered local people towards achieving the quality and accessibility. The disparity of economies in the developing and developed country causes them to migrate in pursuit of stable economic future.
The political framing is extremely crucial and the most powerful weapon to lead any transformations in the society. It was also said in the news that instead of building homes and giving support to the people, the US government invested millions of dollars to build the border wall. Certainly providing a better life support system and altering the humane border system could reduce the chances of deaths around the world. The polarised views of the public, effects the lives of migrants as they doesn’t get a chance to bloom as immigrants in other countries due to their ethnicity or their financial background. There’s always been an invisible barrier which exists between an immigrant and the local community. The idea to remove the stereotypes, racial bias and support the underprivileged communities with unity could hundred percent reduce the socio-economic conflicts which are prevalent in the society. The technology and media plays a very important role in addressing the informative issues and conceptions of the people. Many of the families undergo psychological problems being refugees at detention centres or refugee camps. These people face a lot of criticism, parents separated from their children, this condemnable situation results disrupting the lives of many innocents. Reports address that thousands of people get stuck for very long at the detention centres including the innocent children and some seems to disappear. The lack of care causes the children a psychological disturbance and sometimes compels them to indulge into bad habits.
DESIGN PROCESS
I started my code my idea, using the clm tracker. The clm tracker link is attached to my index html file. I created tracker object which tracks the positions and detects the face. The filter is another object which creates a visual filter by default on the display if you deviate from the camera. Then I built up my code with the following stories of migrants. I incorporated the music which can be played when the mouse is pressed and can be paused if the mouse if pressed again. In every 15 seconds, the story changes. Then reappears when the 60 seconds are over. The for loop has been used to repeat the text of every story multiple times on the right side of the canvas. Each story on the camera conveys some message and news about the particular image of the sufferer. The background has the flag from what countries they belonged to for example, Mexico, Syria and Africa. The tint function lightens the flag to make visible the user at the background. Face detection feature enables the user to look at the images of migrants, and bring attention the experiences they have been through. When you move outside the sight of the camera, you can just see the blank coloured filter.
Major functions used : preload, if else statement, tint, pixel array, pixel density, createGraphics, song, song loop. , getposition, mouseX, mouseY, for loop, nmouse pressed, song play, song pause, second, load pixels, update pixels.
The stories protests against the racism, inhumane immigration policies, and tough immigration laws. These negative nuances in the society, creates a loophole between the privileged and the unprivileged people, by law and order, politics or inhumanity.
MIGRANT STORY 1
My research started with the story of a young boy from Syria named Alan Kurdi who was found dead on the seashore in Turkey. The news was trending all over the media and many people protested to support migration. The incident struck my thoughts about the life of immigrants, where they loose they depart from their home country, family, and flee across the globe for a better life. The BBC news said that Alan’s family was fleeing in the inflatable rubber boat to avoid the war zone in Syria. The boat had space for only eight people, but on the boat there were sixteen people. The boat capsized after five minutes in the Mediterranean sea and the treacherous moment where the family drowned, and only the father of the child found alive. Incidents like these have happened a lot with people while crossing the Mediterranean sea.
MIGRANT STORY 2
The second story shows the children from poor regions of Mexico, who were separated from their parents at the detention centres. The immigration laws in America are extremely brutal and strict due to the Trump campaign. Many people revolt against the Zero tolerance for migration in America. The news have said that due to the separation of the families, children face a lot of emotional problems. The children feel isolated, alone and horrified in the hands of strangers. They cry, they yell, they shout, but there is no one who can hear their inner voices. The inhumanity against the children is intolerant. The children are provided with no proper sanitation, no proper blankets or things to play with, which destroys their childhood. Why should the innocents be the sufferers? If you drag the mouse towards right, you can see the image of children trapped inside the detention centre in America. This disturbance in their life would put a scar on their innocence forever.
MIGRANT STORY 3
Many African families travel to Europe and England, in order to earn money and feed their families. African men hunt for jobs and seek for help. They travel through the Mediterranean sea to reach the port. Many people die walking through the desserts and torrid weather, or some end up drowning in the sea. Due to their illegal presence, it becomes a struggle to earn money, or to find proper jobs, this leaves them no choice other than to indulge into smuggling the drugs or engage in bad activities or remain homeless for long. People work illegally after reaching their destinations, hides away from the government authorities. Immigrants live in fear and terror throughout their lives. Africa is still a developing country and some part of it still remains poor, which compels them to flee around. Due to their dark skin, many people face racism, and their life becomes harder to attain good livelihood. If you drag the image towards right, you shall be able to see the image conveying
MIGRANT STORY 4
Hazeema migrated with her family from Syria to Germany. They were travelling in a crammed boat of a smuggler, which was capsized in the sea. She claimed that since then her two boys have been missing, one was 12 years old and other one was 9 year old at that time. She is fighting against the mental health and psychological impact of this incident. Rafat was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and coping up with her husband in Germany. Many incidents like these, jumbles up the normal life of a person, just because they are born poor or the government is not accountable for providing good services to the public.
REFLECTION
From this assignment, helped me to think critically of how I can create ways to represent a camera and deliver a strong message to the viewer. I chose this topic because many people are not aware about the life of immigrants or we don’t bother to think about what problems they must have faced. The idea of displaying photographs of innocent children and adults on the face of a viewer is because, it would definitely compel a person to actually think about what they’ve felt and gone through. The emotional messages addressed through the text, music and pictures would resonate in a viewer’s head. This would empower and support the immigrant community, or maybe when the viewer come across any immigrant in future they wouldn’t be biased or inhuman with the immigrant and help the needy ones. This way, we can form an understandable and lucid community. I wanted to incorporate the use of the face detection images properly even when we move around the camera it still displays the image of immigrants. Since it has a flickering effect because the function is trying to detect the face. But, if I had time I would have enjoyed learning to avoid the flicker of the images throughout. The assignment was enjoyable, I could relate better to how snapchat, Instagram and other applications creates the filter effect with some elements being dragged along the users face.
REFERENCES
1. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35102320
2. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-32384519
3. https://www.oxfam.org/en/perilous-migration-across-desert-niger-africas-hidden-story
4. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34150419
5. https://nbclatino.com/2013/03/25/studies-hope-to-show-the-emotional-toll-on-children-of-undocumented-immigrants/
6. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/08/us/ice-raids-girl-cries-father-trnd/index.html
7. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/us/migrant-children-shelters.html
8. https://youtu.be/q0vdzG2oHU0