This project will realize a colorful sand drawing on the ground, visualizing the variety of dairy transports that take place throughout Nigeria. The collected routes will be drawn as a scaled sand-track by the GPS drawing robot on the ground, in a direct and recognizable way.

The sand drawing will be based on actual GPS (Global Positioning System) recordings, that the NomadicMILK team plans to collect in 2009 in close collaboration with dairy transporters in Nigeria: being both Fulani cattle owners and people involved in the distribution of condensed milk and powder milk. Beside the sand drawing the project will result in a poetic film that will tell the story of the landscape, people, economy and mobility behind the sand drawing.

To be able to discus the routes with both groups, a visualization tool will be developed special for this project: a GPS drawing robot. The collected routes will be drawn as a scaled sand-track by the GPS drawing robot on the ground, in a direct and recognizable way. The tracks will thus be discussed amongst the Fulani, Peak transporters and the team. The combination of the expected routes shows the difference in spatial organization of both dairy economies.

By mapping ever-changing Fulani migration routes, and modern Peak transports this project will create a contemporary form for depicting pastoral landscape. No matter how different their lifestyles might seem, the two groups can be considered colleagues in a shared workplace.
In this way, it becomes possible to communicate about something that is normally invisible: the routes covered by individuals and their daily routines in a spatial context.

In addition to the aesthetic aspect of the project, the route visualizations will give both the Fulani herdsmen and Peak transporters a new perspective on their own perceptions of place, mobility and economics. Their comments and reactions to the sand-drawings of the routes that are so vital to them will be the centre of focus in the project.