SUMMER 2013_TREASURED ISLAND
_MADAGASCAR


Projects


The Unknown Fields Division is a nomadic design studio that ventures out on expeditions to the ends of the earth to explore peripheral landscapes, industrial ecologies and precarious wilderness. These landscapes - the iconic and the ignored, the excavated, irradiated and the pristine - are embedded in global systems that connect them in surprising and complicated ways to our everyday lives. Each year we navigate a different trajectory as we seek to map the complex and contradictory realities of the present as a site of strange and extraordinary futures.


In times past an anarchist community of pirates called Madagascar home. It was an island beyond the law and off the map, a place of rogues, booty and bounties. These were outlaws moored on a marooned ecosystem. Set adrift 88 million years ago, the island is a castaway in the Indian Ocean, inhabited by a band of ecological stowaways. In this splendid isolation it has evolved into an unparalleled wonderland of the weird and unique, diverse and unbelievable. A political coup in 2009 left the country adrift once more - isolated from the international community, deprived of foreign aid and conservation funding. One of the planet’s most precious ecological treasures is home to one of its poorest nations and it raises difficult and complex questions about the relationship between necessity and luxury. Amidst political uncertainty, the island’s fragile and unique ecology is being smuggled out illegally, boat by boat, gem by gem. Rare tortoises leave in rucksacks, forests are carved into the ebony fingerboards on Gibson Guitars or $1million rosewood beds sold in China.


In the run up to the country’s first election since the coup Unknown Fields heads to Madagascar to catalogue the push and pull of economy and ecology and to trace the shadows of the world’s desires across the landscapes of this treasured island. Along our way we seek to uncover some of the complex value negotiations that play out across this unique island and craft new stories from statistics, data, predictions, projections, measurements and offsets. The Division ventured through wild west sapphire towns and mining landscapes and treked through rainforests ringing with the song of the Indri in search of rare and undiscovered treasures, a menagerie of preciousness and scarcity, of rubies, minerals and exotic spices, of ring tailed Lemurs, ‘octopus’ trees, and carnivorous plants; of pigmy chameleons, tomato frogs and moon moths. We travelled by plane and pirogue, train and taxi-brousse, from rough roads to rough seas, to fishing villages and up rivers silted with eroded soils. Unknown Fields reimagine a territory that is equally wondrous and scarred as we follow the trail of global resource extraction into the heart of the most unique ecosystem on the planet.


Joining us on tour were international collaborators from the worlds of technology, science and fiction, and together we will form a travelling circus of research visits, field reportage, rolling discussions and impromptu tutorials that will be chronicled in a publication and film developed en route.


12/13 Division Roster


Leaders: Liam Young and Kate Davies


Special Forces: Embedded photographers Toby Smith and Chris Littlewood, Media Artist Memo Atken, Futurist Cher Potter and illustrator Jane Laurie.


Photo Gallery by Toby Smith



All Up In My Grill
Unknown Fields Human Resources Department_Summer 2013_Madagascar 22°46'36.8"S 45°06'33.5"E


Print


All Up In My Grill. Film Still © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


Unknown Fields traveled through Madagascar to catalogue the push and pull of economy and ecology and meet the illegal traders of the world’s luxury brands.


As the beat drops and the stage lights strobe, popstars dripping with bling flash their jeweled gold teeth for the camera in a flurry of choreographed dance moves. A world away, in a hole in the ground in the wild west mining town of Ilakaka, Madagascar, another ensemble of bodies move in rhythm, to dig dirt by hand out of the bottom of a precious gem mine. An accompanying film maps the choreographies and characters of the hidden black market supply chain that ties the shimmer of luxury to the dusty Gemfields of Madagascar. Here it is cheaper to pay workers in rice than it is to buy and maintain mechanical mining equipment. The human conveyor belts of Ilakaka shovel dirt in perfect synchronization, each man paid with 50g of rice, their bodies repurposed as digging machines.


Unknown Fields have used the amount of rice the human conveyor belt consumes in a day to manufacture a precious stone that embodies the systems through which these worlds are intimately and profoundly connected. The red Madagascan rice grown endemically on this treasured island is a staple food of the miners and has been collected locally and shipped to gem specialists for carbon analysis. By subjecting the rice to extreme heat and pressure in the laboratory, Unknown Fields have formed a synthetic stone encoded with the sum of the human conveyor belt’s labor. After manufacture, the gemstone has been set into a gold tooth, ready for that million-dollar smile and the outrageous lyric. From kilojoules, to carats. In the glare of this cheeky gold grin we see the cost of luxury, of beauty, of a daily allowance of rice, of 20 men shoveling at the bottom of a hole.


All Up in my Grill by Unknown Fields. Commissioned by Middleborough Institute of Modern Art. Film and Photography in collaboration with Toby Smith



Unknown fields travelled to the gemfields of Madagascar to visit the human conveyor belt that digs out by hand 30% of the worlds gemstones. They collected the rice that the 20 men of the conveyor belt consume in a day to produce their rice diamond. Film Stills © Heart in Diamond


Print


The finished gold tooth and Madagascan rice diamond. Film Still © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


Print


Using the amount of Madagascan rice the human conveyor belt consumes in a day the gem laboratory has grown a synthetic stone for Unknown Fields. Film Stills © Heart in Diamond


Print


Print


Print


Print


Print


Unknown FIelds' jeweller sets the rice diamond into the gold tooth in their London workshop. Film Still © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


Print


Just before the gold tooth and diamond is sent out for the hip hop music video shoot it gets one last polish in the workshop. Film Still © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields



Madagascan Portraits: The Body as Machine_Sapphire Mine Conveyor Belt
Unknown Fields Human Resources Department_Summer 2013_Madagascar 18°56'14.84"S 47°29'54.25"E



In the run up to the country’s first election since the coup Unknown Fields headed to Madagascar to catalogue the push and pull of economy and ecology and to trace the shadows of the world’s desires across the landscapes of this treasured island. Travelling with journalists and investigative photographers we uncovered some of the complex value negotiations that play out across this unique island and developed a series of narrative portraits told through statistics, data, predictions, projections, measurements and offsets. Text and images appear courtesy of TANK Magazine where the work was first published. Text by Sohrab Golsorkhi-Ainslie, Photography by Chris Littlewood, Footage by Toby Smith, Graphic by Unknown Fields


Ilakaka, 2013 (c) Chris Littlewood


Sapphire miner - 22°46'53.50"S 45°6'20.37"E


Mirana stands on a pile of displaced earth in Manalobe, close to the epicentre of the relatively recent gemstone boom in Ilakaka. The ground beneath her feet conceals sapphire deposits, laid down along an ancient subterranean riverbed left over from when the island was still attached to the Indian subcontinent. One cubic metre of dirt and gravel can contain as much as a gram of sapphire – five carats’ worth – which could fetch more than $5000 internationally. Mirana is paid $2 per day to work the mine.



Madagascan Portraits: The Body as Machine_Zebu Herder
Unknown Fields Human Resources Department_Summer 2013_Madagascar 21°50'1.70"S 46°56'9.58"E



In the run up to the country’s first election since the coup Unknown Fields headed to Madagascar to catalogue the push and pull of economy and ecology and to trace the shadows of the world’s desires across the landscapes of this treasured island. Travelling with journalists and investigative photographers we uncovered some of the complex value negotiations that play out across this unique island and developed a series of narrative portraits told through statistics, data, predictions, projections, measurements and offsets. Text and images appear courtesy of TANK Magazine where the work was first published. Text by Sohrab Golsorkhi-Ainslie, Photography by Chris Littlewood, Footage by Toby Smith, Graphic by Unknown Fields


.

Zebu Herder - 21°50'1.70"S 46°56'9.58"E


Mahefa is a zebu herdsman from Ihosy who walked for a week with his 50 zebu to get to the Ambalavao zebu market, the second largest on the island. Along the way he and his family had to defend the herd from rustlers. For people in rural Madagascar a zebu is the highest symbol of wealth, imbued with both economic value and cultural significance. More useful to hold than cash, an adult zebu yields around 160 kilograms of meat and costs between $400 and $660 at the market. Mahefa will try to trade his adult zebu for calves to take back to Ihosy. In almost every region in Madagascar, the zebu is a key part of the culture, whether in rites of passage that involve stealing a zebu from a nearby village or sacrificial banquets held when the head of the family dies.



Madagascan Portraits: The Body as Machine_Gold Miner
Unknown Fields Human Resources Department_Summer 2013_Madagascar 20°37’49.64”S 47°12’5.99”E



In the run up to the country’s first election since the coup Unknown Fields headed to Madagascar to catalogue the push and pull of economy and ecology and to trace the shadows of the world’s desires across the landscapes of this treasured island. Travelling with journalists and investigative photographers we uncovered some of the complex value negotiations that play out across this unique island and developed a series of narrative portraits told through statistics, data, predictions, projections, measurements and offsets. Text and images appear courtesy of TANK Magazine where the work was first published. Text by Sohrab Golsorkhi-Ainslie, Photography by Chris Littlewood, Footage by Toby Smith, Graphic by Unknown Fields


.

Gold miner - 20°37’49.64”S 47°12’5.99”E


Rakoto has dug up this rice field in Ivato, north of Ranomafana National Park, in the hope of finding tiny deposits of gold that fetch $1333 per ounce on the international market (price accurate on 14/08/13). He and his family pan the mud in specially irrigated pools on adjacent fields. Several years ago he made the calculated decision that he could make a better living searching for gold than from subsistence farming in the rice fields. Researchers at the Centre Valbio inside Ranomafana are testing pilot schemes to introduce more modern agricul-tural techniques to the region and provide alternative livelihoods mostly based on ecotourism, hoping to reduce the temptation for villagers to destroy the forest in search of food and gold.



Madagascan Portraits: The Body as Machine_Mud Brick Factory
Unknown Fields Human Resources Department_Summer 2013_Madagascar 22°46’53.50″S 45°6’20.37″E



In the run up to the country’s first election since the coup Unknown Fields headed to Madagascar to catalogue the push and pull of economy and ecology and to trace the shadows of the world’s desires across the landscapes of this treasured island. Travelling with journalists and investigative photographers we uncovered some of the complex value negotiations that play out across this unique island and developed a series of narrative portraits told through statistics, data, predictions, projections, measurements and offsets. Text and images appear courtesy of TANK Magazine where the work was first published. Text by Sohrab Golsorkhi-Ainslie, Photography by Chris Littlewood, Footage by Toby Smith, Graphic by Unknown Fields


.

Brick maker - 18°56'14.84"S 47°29'54.25"E


Tsinjo stands in a rice paddy on the outskirts of the capital, Antananarivo. Once the crop is harvested each year he uses the mud to make bricks, forcing it into moulds by hand; the bricks are left in the sun to dry before being fired in stacks. The bricks drying in the sun behind him are worth 70 Ariary ($0.03). The rice field sinks lower and lower each year, until it is useless for both rice and bricks and becomes waste ground, bereft of value.



Madagascan Portraits: The Body as Machine_Quarry Worker
Unknown Fields Human Resources Department_Summer 2013_Madagascar 18°12'24.32"S 49°21'26.41"E



In the run up to the country’s first election since the coup Unknown Fields headed to Madagascar to catalogue the push and pull of economy and ecology and to trace the shadows of the world’s desires across the landscapes of this treasured island. Travelling with journalists and investigative photographers we uncovered some of the complex value negotiations that play out across this unique island and developed a series of narrative portraits told through statistics, data, predictions, projections, measurements and offsets. Text and images appear courtesy of TANK Magazine where the work was first published. Text by Sohrab Golsorkhi-Ainslie, Photography by Chris Littlewood, Footage by Toby Smith, Graphic by Unknown Fields


.

Quarry worker - 18°12'24.32"S 49°21'26.41"E


Seven-year-old Mamy stands on a pile of rocks that he and members of his family have been salvaging for sale from an abandoned quarry near Toamasina. In the distance behind him is the Ambatovy processing plant this quarry was excavated to build. Family groups of six to eight, mostly comprising women, older men and children, work to extract the final grains of value from the waste left behind by the Ambatovy project, which has to date cost an estimated $6.9 billion.



Madagascan Portraits: The Body as Machine_Firewood collector
Unknown Fields Human Resources Department_Summer 2013_Madagascar 15°17’59.40”S 50°18’26.58”E



In the run up to the country’s first election since the coup Unknown Fields headed to Madagascar to catalogue the push and pull of economy and ecology and to trace the shadows of the world’s desires across the landscapes of this treasured island. Travelling with journalists and investigative photographers we uncovered some of the complex value negotiations that play out across this unique island and developed a series of narrative portraits told through statistics, data, predictions, projections, measurements and offsets. Text and images appear courtesy of TANK Magazine where the work was first published. Text by Sohrab Golsorkhi-Ainslie, Photography by Chris Littlewood, Footage by Toby Smith, Graphic by Unknown Fields


.

Firewood collector - 15°17’59.40”S 50°18’26.58”E


Axe in hand, Pepe treks along the path into Masoala National Park in search of firewood, as there is no alternative fuel source. It is estimated that 150,000 hectares of rainforest are cleared each year in Madagascar, primarily for firewood and agricultural land.


Tolagnaro, 2013 (c) Chris Littlewood


Fishermen - 25° 1'7.03"S 46°59'27.57"E


The fishermen on the eastern coast of Madagascar, like coastal communities all over the country, are facing increased competition from migrants from the interior. There, the combination of a growing population and overworked arable land has forced people to the coast in search of food. The aggressive fishing techniques they employ (including the use of poison) devastate fish stocks, which are then difficult to replenish. As a result, fishermen whose knowledge of managing stocks has been handed down over generations are forced to travel further than ever along the coast and out to sea in search of fish.