Displaced Narratives
Move yourself
May 4th, 2008 by Ricardo Gonzalez
In this project a device similar to a hand-held computer game is used to raise awareness about forced displacement in Colombia. Users have to physically move a pre-determined distance holding the device, to hear fragments of the chronicles that real displaced Colombians have told. The distance that the user walks in order to hear the testimonies represents a percentage of the distance that the displaced persons had to travel.
At some points of the interaction the users are asked to choose the fragment of the story they want to hear by turning left or right. Thus, building the stories is not a linear process. Each user can build the narratives in a different way.
As the users walk with the device, in different urban outdoors spaces, their movement is represented on the device's LCD screen as a line. When the user walks the necessary distance to hear part of a chronicle, this geographical point appears visually on the screen as an icon. When a different user interacts with the device he does not only see the line he drew as he walked with the device but the trails that previous users have drawn as well.