mapping migration memories

Mapping Migration Memories is a multiyear research project that gathers existing archived recorded memories and will seek out unrecorded memories of the biannual Qatari migration. We are looking at the walk itself. Not the sea and not the camp per say, but the path taken. The research team of four students is especially inspired by one of the oral history sections in the Qatar National Museum, which features Qatari elders speaking of their memories of the biannual migration from Sea to Desert and back. This mass movement of people, in sync with the turning of the planet and the shifting of the seasons, is the inspiration for the (IN)>tangible Lab’s first project. How can Mapping Migration Memories serve Social Sustainability? Historically the Qatari relationship to land use was seasonal and climate-based. By actively gathering the memories of migration, this research seeks to preserve Local Ecological Wisdom and Traditional Knowledge.

The (IN)>Tangible Lab is currently preparing for two large immersive installations, fusing the sounds and film from our two expeditions held last Fall in the North and South of Qatar.