Mi Fink app, a participative research-creation experience for afro-caucan territory protection in Colombia

Abstract

The Traditional Afro-Caucan farm - TAF is part of the northern Cauca culture in Colombia, but it is threatened. Mi Fink is a mobile phone app that vindicates the tradition of the farm as a form of community work an afro-descendant expression about their identity in this territory. This app is the result of a research-creation project with children from the municipality of Villa Rica in the northern region of the Department of Cauca in Colombia. Through collaborative design, a team of professionals from different areas and academic researchers investigated the memories of care and use of their territory. Despite expected limitations related to digital technologies access, this experience shows how easy children can get involved, collaborate and carry out innovative activities with digital devices such as stop motion animation. The project gives clues to the knowledge and recognition of spaces in which participatory design allows a transition from a passive use of mobile phones to a creative perspective using meaningful activities to transform realities. In this way, we are able to construct various stories about their reality, in this case, from children who are often marginalized and excluded from dominant cultural trajectories.