The act of counter-mapping by local people as everyday resistance and solidarity has the idea of expanding the perspective of seeing. And when we talk about seeing, it's got to do with how we can go beyond the mainstream narrative, hence the idea of resistance. Local people’s views and claims have not been adequately recognized, and even more rarely accepted on their own terms. Some translation is needed into the terms of those who would claim them. Maps give local people the power to do so.
The act of counter-mapping by whose land has been alienated in the wake of colonialism, modernity, and development, and whose traditional insight into human beings' relationship with their physical environment have rarely received the serious consideration they indisputably deserve. The act of counter-mapping opens up space for unconventional and progressive discussions to take place in order to argue the developmental ideas of the city. Solidarity can be in a different way through mapping, particularly if we are to understand the positionality, whether it's from a physical or abstract perspective.
This panel invited three collectives from Surabaya, Kuala Lumpur and Quezon City to discuss their respective practices in counter-mapping. For Pertigaan Map, walking is a foundational event, which humans and the territory as part of the cosmos, to claim and belonging. LiteraCity, their mapping spark diverse imagination and reality of the city from the lenses of literature to questions of social, politics and economic surrounding Kuala Lumpur’s ideas of “development”. For counter-mapping PH, counter-mapping has been a critical tool to comprehend and level the fight against development aggression and dispossession. The essence of counter-mapping relies not on the complexity of its procedure or the technicality of its outputs, but rather on maximizing available platforms to serve the communities.
A video recording of this event is available to view here.
Counter-mapping PH https://countermappingph.xyzv
In Counter-mapping PH, we believe that one avenue to support mass-based campaigns is to employ the critical praxis of Geography particularly counter-mapping. Counter-mapping is a participatory project that articulates land claims and experiences of dispossession through an engaged co-production of maps and varied modes of cartographic representation — mental maps, installations, online maps, and alike. Against “official” maps disenfranchising populations, this study develops a progressive mapping that not only contests state-rendered maps but also aids in the struggle of the marginalized against development aggression. Collectively, we all have an urgent task to support and foreground other silenced narratives.
LiteraCity https://www.literacitykl.com
LiteraCity, with the phrase “to build the city with words” is a Kuala Lumpur literature based text and cultural mapping focusing from 1970 to contemporary times. LiteraCity outlines Kuala Lumpur’s development process not merely from the factor of time and space setting, but covering the many events and location as a “maturing” factor for the city to be built with words.
Pertigaan Map https://pertigaanmap.com
The Pertigaan Map looks deep into the urban history of Kota Tua Surabaya and its shade over contemporary urban lives of this longue durée. Subjectively, they find a walking map is the most suitable format to document the overlapped layers of forgotten north Surabaya as they believe walking gives anyone an absolute control over their personal experience and strive to appropriate the movement of the cosmos.
Chair and Speaker Bios
Celcea Tifani (@celcea) is a graphic designer with a strong interest in the rational approach and the role of all five human senses in the design process. Believes that graphic design is merely a channel of both expressions and solutions to everyday problems that should intersect with other disciplines and practices. For the past four years, she has been pursuing screen printing techniques and participated in the Art Book Fairs in Shanghai and Beijing. She is now a senior visual designer for LottieFiles, a design and tech company that believes in liberating motion design.
Anitha Silvia (@anithasilvia) is a cultural activist based in Surabaya, Indonesia. She works as research assistant for Marco Kusumawijaya’s upcoming book “Cities in Indonesia: An Introduction for Common People”, is a member of Indonesia Netaudio Forum and Kwangsan Kunstkring, and Silampukau’s band manager. She is developing walking-based pedagogy through collaborative projects, Pertigaan Map and Suroboyo Ngalor Ngidul. Her latest walk is mapping traditional coffee kiosks, traditional markets, kampungs, and rivers in Surabaya. She is a 2021-2022 fellow within the BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice in Utrecht.
Arnisson Andre Ortega is a human geographer and critical demographer who is passionate about social justice. Arnisson's interests lie at the intersection of urban, population and community geographies. In particular, Arnisson examines the spatial politics of urbanization in the cities of the Global South, interlinking urban transformations with transnational mobilities of migrants, capital and ideas, and interrogating the multiple spatial configurations of accumulation by dispossession. Over the past few years, Arnisson has focused on urban transformations in the Philippines, contributing to theorizations of new urban forms in the Global South, transnational urbanisms and geographies of dispossessions.
Zikri Rahman has consistently embarked on collaborations with cultural activist groups in various socio-political projects. Buku Jalanan, a rhizomatic network of street library movement he co-founded, is a loose cultural and knowledge workers movement focusing on decentralizing the modes of knowledge production. He is also affiliated with Pusat Sejarah Rakyat, independent archival research and documentation focusing on Malaysia and Singapore’s people’s history. With LiteraCity, he initiated a literary and cultural mapping project in the city of Kuala Lumpur. Currently pursuing his postgraduate studies in Social Research and Cultural Studies in Taiwan, Zikri is also a writer, independent researcher, translator, and podcaster for various ephemeral platforms.
Prof. Hyun Bang Shin (@urbancommune) is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and directs the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. His research centres on the critical analysis of the political economy of speculative urbanisation, gentrification and displacement, urban spectacles, and urbanism with particular attention to Asian cities. His books include Planetary Gentrification (Polity, 2016), Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Exporting Urban Korea? Reconsidering the Korean Urban Development Experience (Routledge, 2021), and The Political Economy of Mega Projects in Asia: Globalization and Urban Transformation (Routledge, forthcoming). He is Editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and is also a trustee of the Urban Studies Foundation.