ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the politics of contemporary imagery surrounding the “refugee crisis” from 2015 onward in Europe and challenges the so-called reality of such representations. It concentrates on the comparative analysis of four case studies: a virtual reality film of the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan; a role-playing game that reconstructs the refugee’s journey in physical space; a popular holiday booking app listing for a tent in the camp of Ritsona, Greece; and a graphic novel presenting the author’s experience in the Calais “Jungle” camp in France. The four case studies make the refugee crisis visible in different ways and reenact the spatial and material conditions of displacement. The aim is to situate the viewer between the space of the refugee experience and its representations. This condition of placement between the real and its image is underpinned by Alain Badiou’s and Slavoj Žižek’s reflections on the passion for what is real; the dialogue between the two unpacks the space of the refugee experience through analog and digital media. As the space inhabited by the refugees gets presented, re-presented, and physically reconstructed, the chapter raises questions on design authorship and positionality and calls for ethical design responses to the crisis.
