Climate and migration are bound together not just on a political and metaphorical level, but their relationship is also activated in the joint application of sensors and data. The EU-funded operative platform CALLISTO is an example of this. It ties together operations in agriculture, water management, journalism, and border security by employing artificial intelligence and machine learning to blend data derived from satellites, drones, and social media.

To engage with CALLISTO, we rely on a mix of methods employing operational analysis, aesthetic research, data visualisation, and theory. To realize the project, we combine our expertise in photography, design, artistic research, and curatorial work, all the while working from the common ground of media studies where we focus on digital culture, environmental and sensorial media, and the study of borders and migration.

The goal of the project is to demonstrate that the regulation of climate and migration are dependent upon each other and that their connection is established by technical, operative, and semiotic means. Although we focus our analysis on the case study of CALLISTO, we expect our findings to be transferrable to other fields of inquiry, as we strive to develop a definition of operative platforms and a method for their analysis, combining text, image, and data.