A binding process is used as a displacement metaphor making present the voice of an unnoticed settlement of Okinawan farmers in Bolivia. The work is formed by a collection of soundscapes, voices and types of handwriting that document different plant species of Bolivian Okinawa City and its surroundings. It has two elements that clarify each other: a 94 page printed sketchbook and a cabinet with speakers containing the 3 double side printed press sheets of the same sketchbook (an unbound version). Since 1945 Okinawa has been forced to host 70 percent of the US military bases in Japan, 42 percent of its farming land. The hostile living conditions caused by the bases detonated a migration of their farmers and the sprouting of Okinawa City in 1954 Bolivia. It is located in the departament of Santa Cruz; within 78% of Bolivia 's biodiversity lays the 12000 inhabitants city. Surrounding sounds, voice tones, colloquial plant names and the places each person chooses to mention trace the geography. Each soundscape belongs to a double page in the sketchbook containing the geographical coordinates of where the recording took place and the handwriting of the voice we listen to. As the cabinet plays a sound file it lights the area where its double page is located on the printed press sheets. The cabinet allows for an extended view of handwritings and coordinates, and it also visualises the position of a double page within the geography of press sheets. The sketchbook permits locating the same double page within its chronology. Together they visualize a location displacement due to the section sewing binding process: some who used to be neighbors no longer are and are now close to others. The visualization of a small but cherished territory, a pocket size sketchbook, is used to contain a view of another small but rich and relevant one: Bolivian Okinawa City.
Website: https://annabelcastro.org/geography.html