Subjective mapping of Singapore
Winter – Summer 2020
For a collaboration between the art schools Lasalle in Singapore and Sint Lucas in Antwerp, Subjective Editions started to imagine a Subjective atlas of Singapore; what does it mean to live in Singapore, and what can we learn from its inhabitants? Together they invited design students to visualize Singapore from their perspective, starting with a workshop in January 2020, and continued under the guidance of designer Syairah Malek towards a first digital publication shared on social media during summer 2020.
Workshop at La Salle, Singapore, January 2020. Photo: Annelys de Vet
What if maps wouldn’t start by top-down cartographic commissioners and ruling power structures, but bottum-up by the inhabitants themselves? What if the concept of mapping wouldn’t begin with excluding, but with including plural truths? What if you would allow borders to merge, deny cultural hierarchies and admit poetry in it’s representation? Could you create a different reality?
These questions unfolded many layers the moment the students of Lasalle spoke about their view on reality with the manicured nature, security camera's in the parcs, the imported water, the racial diversity versus the spreading of wealth, the amount of pools, the low birth rate and the urban planning in perspective of the colonial structures.
Workshop at La Salle, Singapore, January 2020. Photo: Annelys de Vet
We're looking back at a really inspiring encounter with the engaged students of Lasalle in Singapore who shared their views on what it means to live in Singapore, and face very layered realities of wealth, rules, diversity, quality, pressure and the human position within this. The students unveiled their visions in sketches of the city-state and alternative flags to represent it from a perspective from within. This workshop was the starting point of a locally run trajectory to further map the region from subjective positions to come towards an atlas that can unveil the multitude of realities.
Methodology
The methodology adopted for this project is highly adaptable in other regions to allow other bodies to replicate and create their own Subjective Atlas. The team in Singapore specifically used Google Drive as the platform to collate all the materials submitted by the participants for easy access. This project could therefore be carried out online entirely, opening more doors of opportunity for entries to be submitted not just from the original participants, but also from members of the public.
Impression
Acknowledgements
About LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore;
Asia’s leading tertiary institution in contemporary arts and design education and practice.
LASALLE College of the Arts offers 30 diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in fine arts, design communication, interior design, product design, film, animation, fashion, dance, music, theatre, arts management, arts pedagogy and practice, art therapy, asian art histories and creative writing. LASALLE provides a nurturing, interdisciplinary learning environment to inspire the next generation of forward-looking, globally engaged artists, designers and leaders of creative industries. Its faculty is led by a community of award-winning artists, designers, educators and researchers, and their practice-led research sets LASALLE apart as an international centre of excellence. LASALLE is a non-profit private educational institution founded in 1984 by the late De La Salle Brother Joseph McNally, a visionary artist and educator.
Contributors
Abirami Athmanathan - Student (Class of 2020), MA Programme, School of Design Communication, Faculty of Design Communication. Elizabeth Mildred Wee - Student, MA Programme, McNally School of Fine Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts. Erman bin Abu Bakar - Student, MA Programme, McNally School of Fine Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Jayal Shroff - Student, MA Programme, School of Design Communication, Faculty of Design Communication, Nikhil Kumar - Student (Class of 2020), MA Programme, School of Design Communication, Faculty of Design Communication, Pratibha Nambiar - Student, MA Programme, McNally School of Fine Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Rachel Yeo - Student, (Class of 2020), BA (Hons) Programme, School of Design Communication, Faculty of Design Communication, Shiu Heng - Student (Class of 2020), MA Programme, School of Design Communication, Faculty of Design Communication, Susan Sentler - Staff, DIP in Dance, School of Dance & Theatre, Faculty of Performing Arts, Vanessa Neubronner - Student, (Class of 2020), BA (Hons) Programme, School of Design Communication, Faculty of Design Communication, Zoya Chaudary - Student, MA Programme, McNally School of Fine Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts
