In her CYSWIK talk Esther will provide an overview of her project as it follows dairy transporters (PEAKmilk brand) and Fulani nomadic herdsmen in Nigeria, tracking both their routes with GPS (Global Positioning System). By capturing locative traces Esther provides a visualization of economic knowledge embedded in Nigeria’s dairy industry.
Synopsis: In contemporary Nigeria two dairy economies co-exist. The Fulani who own approximately 90% of the cattle in Nigeria, and who travel seasonally in the North searching for the best grazing grounds run one of them. Their herds are a common sight for the average Nigerian, who buys the Nono, the self-made yoghurt, from Fulani women at local markets. The second dairy economy consists of general companies where Nigerian customers can buy powdered or condensed milk for example PEAK milk, one of the best-known Nigerian dairy brands. The dairy products are imported from the world market, and processed in a big factory in Lagos.
The tiny PEAK milk cans and sacks with powdered milk find their way all over Nigeria, via an effective distribution system: covering big cities to remote bush markets. On those markets, PEAK milk and Fulani milk are often sold side by side, and it is here the two economies meet. These two dairy economies functioning side by side, made us wonder about the mobility patterns that lay behind their outer appearance.
Imagine a map that will show us the unknown route that these dairy products have traveled, and will visualize the day-to-day business of both Fulani- and Peak milk distribution. The map will take you on a trip through Nigerian reality from the perspective of basic nutrition. It will not be a silent map, but a story-telling map that will evoke a unique artistic portrait of the terra incognita of two seemingly unconnected dairy economies, their space, their dynamics, landscapes, stories, places and people.
About Esther Polak:
Esther studied graphic art and mixed media and is interested in how technology determines (visual) perception. In this context she explores the visual and documentary possibilities of GPS.
Her AmsterdamREALTIME project (2002) was one of the first large-scale art explorations in GPS (Global Positioning System) mapping. Ten inhabitants of Amsterdam carried per week a GPS tracer with them. Their routes through town were made visible on a projection screen in the exhibition space. The traces on screen form an alternative, highly personal map of the city. This was a joint project of artists Esther Polak, Waag and Society Jeroen Kee (realtime.waag.org).
In 2004-2005 she developed MILKproject. In this project a European dairy transportation was followed from the udder of the (Latvian) cow, to the mouth of the (Dutch) consumer. All people who played a role in this chain received, for a day, a GPS-device that registered their movements. The team developed a lucid visualization-software for these traces, and let the participants react upon them in their own kitchens or living rooms. MILKproject tells the personal life-stories of these very different Europeans, from the Latvian farmer to the Dutch open-air market salesman with his clients, who are all connected by one thing: the milk from a truck of one Latvian milk collector. The project was awarded with a Golden Nica at Ars Electronica in 2005 It was developed in collaboration with , Ieva Auzina and Rixc, Riga center of new media culture (milkproject.net).
At this moment Polak works on a new GPS-project: NomadicMILK. For this project the tracks of both nomadic herdsman and regular dairy transports in Nigeria will be recorded and visualized. The project will make use of a newly developed GPS-visualization tool: a small robot will draw the tracks directly on the ground in lines of sand. This way the tracks can easily been shown to the Nigerian participants and discussed with them along the road. (www.nomadicmilk.net)
In her projects Polak manages to strip GPS of its nerdy riffraff, and instead uses the technology for making comprehensible visualizations and telling human stories.