Paper short abstract:

The artistic research project "Lampedusa: Picture stories from the edges of Europe" aims at looking beyond media stereotypes of the current refugee crisis and investigating image circulation and image politics.

Paper long abstract:

In November 2010, a research group travelled to the Italian island to meet and interview people who produce pictures related to migration, each of them having different functions, and different agendas. Residents of the island, photojournalists, co-workers of the identification camp, representatives of local and international organizations such as the Italian coastguard, the Red Cross, UNHCR all generate pictures for various purposes: for the documentation and legitimization of their work, for internal training, for the press or as personal memories. This spectrum of actors involved in the social, bureaucratic and political context of migration each described their own viewpoint, thus proposing very different narratives. The talk will consist of a media lecture performance which will discuss the collected material as well as present extracts of recordings from the EU monitoring agency Frontex. Growing more and more prominent in European politics over the last years, Frontex plays a crucial role in border monitoring and refugee detection over the Mediterranean sea . Using a plurality of imaging technologies in combination with digital cartographic systems, the agency's work allows for a new level of surveillance. Digitally exchangeable data provides border control offices with a wide set of different data formats such as satellite, drone radar or optical imagery as well as moving image material. Frontex' mission aims at the standardization and proliferation of European border policies and procedures. At the same time, the agency plays an important role in advancing the technological devices for surveillance.