Sybertek: Migrants at Bay, Interactive Fiction, 2021

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CAM Collective (Carisa Putri Antariksa, Amreen Ashraf, Maria Denise Yala).

Sybertek: Migrants at Bay is a speculative reflection on the migrant crisis by CAM Collective. This interactive experience was inspired by the current data collection and presentation on the migrant crisis. The story begins after a migrant incident has occurred in the imagined future of a fictional surveillance nation state, The Republic of Sybertek. The Ministry of Border Security and Citizen Protection (BSCP) is attempting to curb the flow of irregular migration at their seaside borders. The scene invites the participant to take on the role of a state appointed Migrant Incident Documentation Officer (M.I.D.O) tasked with “recording” information about the migrant’s belongings that have washed up after a smuggler boat carrying people has capsized. Using worldbuilding and storytelling, we attempt to highlight stories behind the humans who are often forced to migrate. In doing so, we wanted to respond to cold statistical data that omits the cruel reality of the crisis. The work considers the question “who collected this data, and what is left out?”. Migrants at Bay was created using the Unity Game engine. This project was researched and prototyped for the ADA-DADA 2020-2021 residency.