About Moving Lines
Moving Lines is a visual narrative of the journeys taken by people who left their hometowns in search of a better life. M., M., M., B., S., O., I., A., R., F., M., M. and R. are asylum seekers who arrived from various parts of the world. They traveled across Balkan and Mediterranean routes.
The project aims to give form to these stories and journeys. For each narrator, a unique and personal line was traced, shaped by their experiences. For every step of the journey, information was collected about the means of transport and the number of days spent travelling.
The line accompanies the reader along the path each migrant has undertaken, showing through its different shapes both the modes of travel and the obstacles encountered.
During the interviews, participants were also invited to share whatever they wished, if and when they wanted to add a more qualitative component to their line. For this reason, in some parts of the lines there are quotes or notes: these mark the moments in which they shared a more detailed fragment of their story.
Some data are missing: in some cases the information could not be recalled. Imperfections and missing data in this project are inevitable and were never considered a problem by the authors.
The narrators were interviewed by Silvia Costantini from May 2021 onwards: in Trieste, with the support of ICS (Italian Consortium of Solidarity); in Rome, with the support and hospitality of Liberi Nantes; and on the Italian-French border. Complete anonymity was guaranteed to each participant.
The interviews are continuing, in line with the project’s objectives.
Moving Lines was developed as a continuation of The Stories Behind a Line, a visual narrative of six asylum seekers who arrived in Italy in 2016, created by Federica Fragapane in collaboration with Alex Piacentini.
AUTHORS
Silvia Costantini, freelance journalist. Her daily challenge is to apply data analysis and a scientific approach to social and investigative journalism, producing articles and reports based on data and generative storytelling that give voice to the truth of the story. Over the years, she worked as a press officer, journalist, editor and author in the non-profit sector, on social journalism projects in schools, and as a speaker and moderator at conferences on the topic of migrants. Recently, she’s been moving between Rome and the borders.
Federica Fragapane, independent information designer. Over the years, she has created data visualization projects for the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Publications Office of the European Union, the BBC, Scientific American, Google, Triennale Milano.
In 2023, three of her data visualizations became part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Across many of her projects, she adopts an experimental approach, carefully selecting visual languages to invite readers to explore the stories told by the data.
Alex Piacentini, designer & creative developer based in Milan. In his work he uses the web and other digital media as multidimensional materials to build projects where code, data and interactivity merge at the intersection of generative design, dataviz, visual art and sound synthesis. Collaborations include institutions like UNFCCC and Columbia University, art galleries like IMPAKT and Futures Photography, music and art festivals (AND in Liverpool, Transart in Bolzano, Transmedia Research in Fano), artists like Zach Blas and Alessandro Zannier for the Venice Biennale.