Project

Exit
An immersive installation that investigates global human migrations, updated to coincide with Cop21 in December 2015.

World population, each pixel represents one thousand people. Photo © Luc Boegly

One hundred twenty-four million people were displaced by floods between January 2006 and December 2014. Photo © Luc Boegly

There are currently about 19.5 million refugees worldwide, and more than 38 million IDPs. Photo © Luc Boegly

Global populations are unstable and on the move. Unprecedented numbers of migrants are leaving their countries for economic, political and environmental reasons. Exit, immerses the viewer in a dynamic presentation of data documenting contemporary human movement. Statistics documenting population shifts are not always neutral and the multiple efforts to collect them are decentralized and incomplete. Here the data are repurposed to build a narrative about global migration and its causes. The viewer enters a circular room and is surrounded by a panoramic video projection of a globe which rolls around the room printing maps as it spins. The maps are made from data which has been collected from a variety of sources, geocoded, statistically analyzed, re-processed through multiple programming languages and translated visually. The presentation is divided into narratives concerning population shifts, remittances, political refugees, natural disaster and sea-level rise and endangered languages.

Originally completed in 2008, EXIT has been fully updated to coincide with Cop21, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change and reflects data from 2015. On view at the Palais Tokyo in Paris from November 25, 2015 – January 10, 2016.

Explore the project video here.

Project Team

Name	Project Role
Laura Kurgan	Collaborator
Contact Laura Kurgan Laura Kurgan is a Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, where she directs the Center for Spatial Research, the Master's in Science in Computational Design Practices, and the Visual Studies curriculum.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro	Collaborator
Contact Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Robert Gerard Pietrusko	Collaborator
Contact Robert Gerard Pietrusko Research Associate in 2009
Mark Hansen	Collaborator
Contact Mark Hansen
Ben Rubin	Collaborator
Contact Ben Rubin
Juan Francisco Saldarriaga	Data Analysis
Contact Juan Francisco Saldarriaga Juan Francisco Saldarriaga is a Mellon Research Scholar at the Center for Spatial Research and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. His research happens at the intersection of data, GIS, urbanism, architecture and the humanities and he teaches graduate level seminars on mapping, advanced GIS and data visualization.
Madeeha Merchant	Data Analysis
Contact Madeeha Merchant Madeeha Merchant received a Masters in Architecture from GSAPP, Columbia University in May 2014, where she worked as a Computation Assistant for the Laboratory of Advance Building Science, a Research Associate for the Spatial Information Design Lab and served as a Board Member on the Columbia University Data Science Society.
Jonathan Izen	Graduate Research Assistant
Contact Jonathan Izen Jonathan Izen is a graduate student in the Master of Architecture program and the GIS Student Coordinator at GSAPP. He graduated from undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture.