Chauka is an interactive data story blending sea-level rise data with storytelling from Manus Island, Papua New Guinea.
Built with Next.js, React and Three.js, it combines 3D mapping, data visualization and sound to create a layered way of engaging with climate data.
The project was created in collaboration with Bertha Ngahan (Storytelling) from Manus Island for the Pacific Dataviz Challenge.
🎧 Sound on for the full experience.
Chauka is a bird endemic to Manus Island and deeply embedded in local culture. In many tales, it appears as a timekeeper or a warning that change is coming.
The experience moves between storytelling and analytical spaces. As natural disasters intensify, floods begin to overlap charts and text, deliberately disrupting the viewer's ability to focus. Acts of resistance eventually push back, before both become stars in an inverted night sky.
The final scene asks us to consider our role as navigators of our own future and that of generations to come.
Next.js · React · Three.js · JavaScript · Python