This page details contents of a student project developed as part of the class ‘Art and Design Methods for the Social Sciences’ co-convened as part of HUD’s efforts to integrate its research into education. You can find more such projects listed on our main education page here.
What happens to a country without land ?
Sinking spaces is a participatory project to host spaces to initiate a dialogue on the future of sinking spaces and digitalisation of it. Tuvalu, a low-lying island state in the Pacific ocean, embodies one of the first places to suffer under sea level rise as a consequence of climate change. In light of the situation, citizens and activists advocate for immediate and ambitious measures to mitigate climate change and its disastrous consequences. However, as their land has been progressively disappearing, solutions to preserve their culture, heritage, and even statehood had to be discussed At the Climate Conference in Egypt in 2022, Tuvaluan minister announced their proposed future for Tuvalu should the worst-case scenario come to fruition: the digitalisation of their nation, i.e. the digital recreation of their land and the archiving of their history and culture.
‘By recreating its land, archiving its culture, and digitising its government, Tuvalu can exist as a nation even after its land is no more. Our digital migration has begun.’ (Tuvalu, The First Digital Nation)
But what does a digital nation look like ? More importantly, how do people feel when their lives and their homes, are projected into the digital space?
Making the Sinking Space
Exploring the above questions a series of interventions- a creative workshop on sinking spaces, a dance performance and, lastly, their digitalisation was designed.
A workshop was therefore organised to explore the loss of one’s home through a creative process. This workshop was an invitation to reflect on the feeling of belonging to a place and how this feeling could be transferred to a digital space.
In addition to the enriching discussions it enabled, the workshop also made it possible to raise awareness of the issue of sinking islands within the immediate community. Adopting a participatory approach, inspired by the traditions of action research, we made it possible to leave room for change as discussions progressed and the project evolved with them. Facilitating these discussions, aimed to ensure that our project remained sensitive, impactful, and true to its purpose of advocacy.
Continuous reflection on our own position in relation to the project lead to another, broader one. Reflecting on outsiders positions on such issues allows us to explore with a fresh perspective on the outsiders response, or lack of response, to the fate of Tuvalu. As Tuvalu, and with it the homes of thousands of people, is gradually swallowed up by the waters, the inaction of other states is striking.
These thoughts loomed large in the background when the decision was made to plan a dance performance in front of the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, on Monday 29 April, the opening day of the 75th session of the International Law Commission. On its agenda stood a discussion on sea-level rise in relation to international law and on the distinction between the criteria for the creation of a State and those for its continuity or extinction, issues of particular relevance to Tuvalu’s situation. This date held therefore strong symbolism both for the project and, more broadly, for Tuvalu’s situation.
Making of the Sinking Spaces
The dance performance features blue curtains representing the gradual rise of sea levels on Tuvalu’s land. The performance was designed to express the feeling of becoming one with the tides, with the performer experiencing being completely covered by the sea, and eventually freeing herself from it. We, indeed, imagined the performance to convey the feeling of having to leave the island, and therefore to convey to the audience the possible feeling of homelessness, sadness and fear, but also, and perhaps more importantly, a remaining connection to one’s land, one’s culture and one’s sea, which is represented in the end position of the dancer. Moreover, this performance highlights a notion of temporality inherently present in the case of Tuvalu. This dance performance of a few minutes wants to convey this important temporary aspect in the context of our project. In fact, we believe that in some ways this echoes the current situation in Tuvalu, as the island is experiencing a real countdown as the waters gradually submerge the island. This also leads back to a more global reflection on time and memory.
In addition, the final phase of the project reproduces the path to digitalisation that Tuvalu has decided to take. In order to transfer our project into the digital space, photographs were taken during the workshop and the performance on Monday 29 April was filmed. Furthermore, this process of digitalisation allows us to guide the audience through the different stages of the project, as it has been reflected upon as a whole process rather than solely a final output. This process includes our changes of mind as we realised our mistakes or the critically reflections on dimensions we had not considered, as well as the very enriching discussions we had with fellow students or other academics. The dance performance was therefore captured in a video, a process which itself holds a strong symbolism. By filming the performance and making a montage with it, we are in fact reproducing – on a smaller scale – Tuvalu’s digitalisation process; the digitalisation of their nation as it gradually disappears, in order to maintain its existence despite the disappearance of its physical shell. This allowed to immortalise an ephemeral performance, thereby enhancing as well its reach and resonance.
Sounds of Sinking Spaces
The soundtrack of the performance has its importance. It consists of speeches extracted from Tuvalu’s government website and wave sounds to immerse the audience in the reality of the islands’ situation. This immersion is achieved through two dimensions, with both, the transmission of a message regarding Tuvalu’s situation through the political discourse,and the wave sounds to set up the context of the island’s environment. In addition, these wave sounds were also those that played in the background of the workshop, and therefore represent the sounds that guided the creation of the artworks.
Art has been thought of as a refuge, a place to express hope. This has indeed allowed hope to be shared. Indeed, art has helped us to communicate messages to individuals who might not otherwise have been interested in the issue and thus could educate and empower people to fight together for the future of Tuvalu and with it the rest of the world.
This project did not aim to solve the problem of rising sea levels or the critical future of Tuvalu’s statehood. Instead, it is a creative intervention that seeks to raise awareness of the current and future struggles of the island of Tuvalu. As such, the project aims to open up innovative discussions and stimulate debates on the future of statehood and the need for action to mitigate the effects of climate change. This has not been done through a problem-solving approach, but rather through a deep exploration of the feelings, emotions and questions surrounding Tuvalu’s future.
‘If Tuvalu sinks, the world sinks with it. If we save Tuvalu, we save the world too.’ – Slogan of the NGO ‘Saving Tuvalu Global Campaign’
Participants : Johanna Zabel, Abhinay Renny, & Emma Christe