As urban migration becomes increasingly shaped by tensions between opportunity and belonging, conventional interviews often struggle to capture these experiences. This study explores how generative art can function as a socio-spatial mediation interface for investigating urban migration decision-making among artist-drifters. This study is rooted in the field of digital humanities and aims to address this methodological challenge in migration studies. To address this issue, a multi-layered generative art installation art was developed. The system translates China’s urban hierarchy into a physical structure in which resource availability, mobility costs, and cultural attachment are spatially represented. The installation art functions as a scenario-based visual elicitation tool and projective canvas through which participants interpret their own migration experiences. The movement of live ants continuously reconfigures the environment, generating dynamic spatial patterns that stimulate observation and reflection. A comparative qualitative study was conducted with twelve artist-drifters. Participants in the experimental condition engaged in guided observation and interpretation of the installation art prior to semi-structured interviews, while a control group without exposure to the system. Interview data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and thematic relationship mapping. Findings suggest that participants interacted with the installation art produced more structurally connected narratives and articulated clearer relationships between pressure, belonging, identity, and migration decisions. The study proposes an Insect–Human–Art mediation framework in which digital simulated biological activity, artistic spatialization, and human interpretation operate as interconnected layers of reflective knowledge production, demonstrating how generative art can contribute new methodological possibilities for digital humanities research and the externalization of social cognition.

Authors:
Alice Zhong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Anthony Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Zhong Qing, an interdisciplinary designer and researcher from China, is currently pursuing a PhD degree at the School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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