mapping

Solution from a Visual Designer

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What I potentially make for my FYP is an installation featuring:

  1. A video or photo of a migrant workers telling their storiesInspiration: Singapore Dream by Sean Cham
    Bashar came to Singapore in 2008, and has worked in many different companies, but mostly as an electrician and engineer. He was born in Bangladesh, and left for Singapore after a few months of studying in Medical School at a young age of 20. Bashar has four other siblings, one of whom is his twin brother. They have grown up together since young, doing everything together. When Bashar left for Singapore to work, his twin brother felt lonely and joined him in Singapore a year later. He left Medical School to support his family, as they were facing financial difficulties and his father was ill. His father passed away two years after he left for Singapore, due to blood cancer. He was given a choice to go back to Bangladesh to visit his father, but he chose not to. He had to work hard to pay hospital bills, amounting to S$10,000, and worked even on weekends to earn money for the family. When he isn't working, he will spend his Sundays at East Coast Park or Kallang River with his twin brother, enjoying a quiet and peaceful stroll. His dream now is for his younger brother, age 19, to complete his degree in Medical School and be a doctor. Bashar, together with his twin, works to pay for his younger brother's education, in the hope that he fulfills the dream he never had the chance to complete. Source: http://www.nvpc.org.sg/newsletters/-/asset_publisher/qxyfn1XUjh5T/content/singapore-dream-a-photography-series?inheritRedirect=false

    Bashar came to Singapore in 2008, and has worked in many different companies, but mostly as an electrician and engineer. He was born in Bangladesh, and left for Singapore after a few months of studying in Medical School at a young age of 20. Bashar has four other siblings, one of whom is his twin brother. They have grown up together since young, doing everything together. When Bashar left for Singapore to work, his twin brother felt lonely and joined him in Singapore a year later. He left Medical School to support his family, as they were facing financial difficulties and his father was ill. His father passed away two years after he left for Singapore, due to blood cancer. He was given a choice to go back to Bangladesh to visit his father, but he chose not to. He had to work hard to pay hospital bills, amounting to S$10,000, and worked even on weekends to earn money for the family. When he isn’t working, he will spend his Sundays at East Coast Park or Kallang River with his twin brother, enjoying a quiet and peaceful stroll. His dream now is for his younger brother, age 19, to complete his degree in Medical School and be a doctor. Bashar, together with his twin, works to pay for his younger brother’s education, in the hope that he fulfills the dream he never had the chance to complete. Source: http://www.nvpc.org.sg/newsletters/-/asset_publisher/qxyfn1XUjh5T/content/singapore-dream-a-photography-series?inheritRedirect=false

    2. A pair of migrant worker’s shoes for the visitors to walk in.

    Inspiration:
    In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus explains to Scout that “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (36).

    3. A booth for people to write their heartfelt gratitude towards migrant workers.

    Inspiration:

    #migrantmail was a collaboration between Geylang Adventures and Waiting for Lorry. They went around collecting handwritten letters and taking polaroids of migrant workers with the objective of curing homesickness by sponsoring the letter back to their hometown.

    #migrantmail was a collaboration between Geylang Adventures and Waiting for Lorry. They went around collecting handwritten letters and taking polaroids of migrant workers with the objective of curbing homesickness by sponsoring the letter back to their hometown.

    The collected letters might be collated in a book or uploaded to a website. It should be translated to Bengali, Tamil, Mandarin, etc. so the migrant workers can read them as well 🙂file_000-4 Published by The Young Entrepreneur Mastery, 2004
    It contains heartfelt letters from youth.

    5. Make a visual journey of my finding processes. It would feature the photos that I take.. The email excerpts..

    6. Visualizing the population of migrant workers in Singapore. The map can contain: places of work, residence, entertainment to show how close are they to us in daily life. I hope to encourage people to be more friendly to the migrant workers, everywhere they are.

    Inspiration:

    World Processor 1988 2014 Igo Günther © Knechtel Photography.

    World Processor 1988 2014 Igo Günther © Knechtel Photography.

Assignment 3: Response to “Seen and unseen: Ho Chi Minh City’s sidewalk life”

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This week’s reading is Sidewalk City‘s first chapter “Seen and unseen: Ho Chi Minh City’s sidewalk life”, written by Annette Kim.

In this chapter, she is explaining about her 3 methods of mapping Ho Chi Minh city’s sidewalk. Her research includes:

  1. spatial ethnography:
    “a method of spatial ethnography that joins together social science research and physical spatial analysis to uncover how sidewalks are actually used and the social processes and meaning of that use”
  2. property rights of public
    “many possible systems for organizing space”

  3. critical cartography
    “mapping overlooked spaces and people”

Overall, the part that struck me the most is about how to conduct a comprehensive research by going down to the space and interact with the locals. By having research conducted this way, one would have a better comprehensive of the field, and he would avoid making a project that does not resonate well with the society.

This weekend, I was not in Singapore. I went back to my hometown in Surabaya, Indonesia. Here, I noticed similarities between Ho Chi Minh City and Surabaya in how the society used up the pedestrians. Here are some photos that I took while I was on the way by car.

Through the assigned reading, I learned from Annette Kim about a glimpse of sidewalk life. Honestly, although I have been in Surabaya since I was born, I have not really used the pedestrian often. My mobility in the city depends on my family car. Therefore, it was interesting for me to relook at the sidewalk that has always been invisible for me.

Some questions that I have with regards to the reading:

  1. I understand that the author had invested a big amount of time being in Ho Chi Minh between 1996 and 2010. There must be a lot of changes in the city, as the author has admitted as well in the book. I wonder how she depicts the ever changing the city’s sidewalk scene in the map, and until how long the map will remain relevant?
  2. Who will benefit most from her sidewalk map? The vendors? The police? The government? The city dwellers?