#4: Search for your lives
Every map is a personal map
Every map is a personal map
Before making my way to Fukuoka last year, I made sure to do a thorough research of the area I was lodging in so I wouldn’t get lost or encounter any unwelcome surprises. Turning to Google Maps, I noted down what I could of Baikouen Ward from the virtual street tour, and then heaved a sigh of relief after purchasing a 3G sim-card in Japan. Getting to the apartment was met with few hiccups, and I coursed through Beppu, Tokyo and Yokohama with similar ease. What was once a system and experience limited to print has become, literally, a mobile window to the rest of the world . Getting around has never been this secure and straightforward. Having options of map terrains, transport routes and virtual street tours leave us (almost) with no excuses.
The earliest appearance of Kallang CC on the Singapore map (1988) next to its interactive Google counterpart (2015, Weebly embedded).
Kiasu research on travel destinations aside, what other things are we able to glean from maps? I, for one, find it interesting to observe how different sorts of human activity are zoned or sectioned; it allows me to imagine the kinds of amenities and demographics to expect without any help from satellite images. I also enjoy the graphicness of maps, in particular how roads link up into elaborate patterns, some of which are neat and obvious, while others are ordered chaos. I take note also of colours and legends used as they contribute to the overall style and quality of a map. And then there are maps that I find hard to understand, particularly when I cannot decipher the meaning behind names of streets and buildings. Certainly too, I get confused or intrigued by information that maps omit or attempt to hide...
But what of map-making, or other kinds of maps, such as those of psychological territories, or of our everyday lives? Today’s exercise of drawing a map from memory revealed a lot about each person behind the pen. Memory also runs contrary to everything a map is supposed to be — omniscient and plotted with accuracy — and with this came some very interesting interpretations.
But what of map-making, or other kinds of maps, such as those of psychological territories, or of our everyday lives? Today’s exercise of drawing a map from memory revealed a lot about each person behind the pen. Memory also runs contrary to everything a map is supposed to be — omniscient and plotted with accuracy — and with this came some very interesting interpretations.
Left to right: Tom's and Zihuan's maps
Tom's and Zihuan's drafts are clear, earnest attempts at giving a sense of orientation and proportion between different sections of a place. It is also quite evident which areas hold special significance in both maps. For Tom, the mang-ka-ka (hokkien for jackfruit) tree he planted in 1984 is aptly singled out by text, while the (more or less) uniform size of his written labels suggests all other areas of Kallang CC are equally important to its total complex. Zihuan, on the other hand, tries his best to pinpoint (or speech-bubble) Boon Keng hawker centre pre-2004, highlighting stalls he frequented during childhood that have since closed down or moved out. Likewise, the overall plan of the hawker centre is meticulously charted, including even red circles for tables!
Hui Ying's map
Without indicating any sense of scale or distance, Hui Ying separates the four main components of Kampung Kampus, her workplace, into approximately equal 'quadrants' (her boundary of the place is notably round), hinting at a greater need to emphasize the aims and focus activities of the Kampus than provide details of its landscape. In some way, Hui Ying's map feels like a graphic manifesto for the community, illustrating how maps can also take on symbolic functions.
Jason's map
While not exactly a photograph, Jason's semi-realistic sketch of a scene he sees all the time in Boon Keng says what a map doesn't try to, and also cannot. Immediately we are drawn to human figures -- elderly men lounging on granite bases of pillars -- and we can form some emotional basis of this site, or at least speculate what Jason's feelings are. It's interesting to think of his drawing alongside Tom's and Zihuan's maps, and how they serve up complementary impressions of Boon Keng.
1: "My eyes choose to look at things that symbolized longevity and prosperity"
2: "Walk around it, walk through it, every AM to feel the kid in me"
3: "The reminder awaits me to live my moments"
4: Huda's map
2: "Walk around it, walk through it, every AM to feel the kid in me"
3: "The reminder awaits me to live my moments"
4: Huda's map
Huda's material, perhaps, illustrates this dialogue between image and information rather seamlessly. Her photographs (from the Everyday Images task) and map drawing behave like reflections of one another even though they're about the same place. Accompanied by contemplative writing, the photographs give us a visual sense of the quiet energies drawing Huda to these objects and places, while the map is a recollection of the homely sounds, conversations and rhythms that pepper the neighbourhood.
As a photographer, I reflect a lot on the camera's ability to frame, scan and copy our lives, producing images that form an amorphous glue for our ideas and environments. Photographs have a strange way of making subjects appear closer and more permanent than they really are. They dislodge, compress and port information, a process rather analogous to memory and cartography. I think Google agrees there is something to be said about photography's place in the world of maps.
As a photographer, I reflect a lot on the camera's ability to frame, scan and copy our lives, producing images that form an amorphous glue for our ideas and environments. Photographs have a strange way of making subjects appear closer and more permanent than they really are. They dislodge, compress and port information, a process rather analogous to memory and cartography. I think Google agrees there is something to be said about photography's place in the world of maps.
Copyright 2015 Ng Xi Jie, Geraldine Kang