Trigger
Point
T.C.McCormack
The Decisionata
There are 197 recorded species
of birds in Berlin, the
cuckoo is one of them, yet
it may soon disappear from
these skies.1 Its distinctive
song can still be heard around
the Tegel area. Cuckoos are
curious birds, much misunderstood
and very territorial, so
their presence in this vicinity
seems appropriate, even
emblematic.
A recent article in Der Spiegel
considers the unexpected nature
of the cuckoo’s migratory
patterns, sighting BTO’s satellite
research that revealed
these birds do not migrate
in groups but plot individual
and diverse routes across
Europe and sub-Saharan
Africa, which partly accounts
for their high mortality rate
and declining numbers across
Germany.
Parallels can be drawn here
with the transitory patterns
of economic and political
migrants, there have been stories
in the press revealing how
people have devised inventive
and sophisticated clandestine
strategies for travelling into
Europe. The film’s narrator
considers the consequences
of transnational capitalism,
the topography of displacement
and the conditions of
risk.
These twinned migratory subjects
offer a speculative reorientation
on a shared ritual
and ontography. Both subjects
divulge a less visible feature;
their patterns (of transit) and
gestures (in action) reveal an
ingenious process of negotiating
obstacles.
The film features a sequence
of close-up details of satellite
images, showing red lines
that plot the flight paths of
migrating cuckoos, drawn
across Europe, Germany and
Brandenburg. These images
are juxtaposed with diagrams,
infographics and illustrations
that reflect the more economic
and political nature of the narrated
text. This narrative voice
speaks about the rituals of
objects; the narrator speculates
on a parallel nature of
these two migratory species,
considering what they might
have in common.
​
1 NABU (German conservation organisation)
has placed the cuckoo on its
endangered list.
2 British Trust for Ornithology research
used satellite-tracking technology.