Projects

2020 Design Studies Thesis Prize: Angela Mayrina’s “A Guidebook to an Empty Land: Kalimantan and the Shadows of the Capital”

Map of land ownership and forest zoning in the new capital area

by Angela Mayrina (MDes ’20) — Recipient of the Design Studies Thesis Prize

Indonesia is an archipelago of 17 thousand islands that were once made of separate kingdoms. The history of the islands and their political recognition is linked to their colonial past and practices of extraction. Years after its independence, the colonial legacy has continuously influenced the way the nation looks at its people, nature, and resources, as well as the interaction between its islands within the national planning, initiatives, and policies. Today, the legacy of past forces is especially prominent in the government’s decision to move the capital from Jakarta (in Java) to East Kalimantan (in Borneo). None of the proposals for the new capital talk about the impact of the move on the current social and environmental ecosystem in Kalimantan. The island is mostly discussed in terms of potential: an empty faraway land, a perfect location for the nation’s new capital—but of whose visions? Throughout history, the “emptying” of the land becomes a method of claiming space by ignoring its existing memory, history, and cultural practices.

A Guidebook to an Empty Land is an ongoing research project that seeks to archive the lives of different inhabitants of Kalimantan that are shadowed by the grand narrative. The archive attempts to reveal the complexities of human and nonhuman beings that are constantly intertwined in the conversation of this empty land. By de-emptying the land with stories, the archive provides an alternative where the history and inhabitants of Kalimantan should be considered and included in the conversation of the moving capital.

The map of the moving capital from Jakarta (in Java Island) to East Kalimantan (in Borneo island)
The map of the moving capital from Jakarta (in Java Island) to East Kalimantan (in Borneo island)
The trope of empty land in the history of imperialism
The trope of empty land in the history of imperialism
Representations of the Dutch East Indies in nineteenth century’s traveler’s guidebooks
Representations of the Dutch East Indies in nineteenth century’s traveler’s guidebooks
an open book depicting an aerial image of land and water
Author’s documentation on the local’s
Sinking Jakarta versus proposed location for the new capital
Sinking Jakarta versus proposed location for the new capital
Map of land ownership and forest zoning in the new capital area
Map of land ownership and forest zoning in the new capital area
The mention of “empty land” in government’s transmigration policy and agricultural development
The mention of “empty land” in government’s transmigration policy and agricultural development
Map showing the long-term effect of The Mega Rice Project, one of the government’s largest agricultural scheme and peatland development in Central Kalimantan.
Map showing the long-term effect of The Mega Rice Project, one of the government’s largest agricultural scheme and peatland development in Central Kalimantan.
Kalimantan’s timber boom facilitated by government’s claiming of forested areas
Kalimantan’s timber boom facilitated by government’s claiming of forested areas
Folk story about the beginning of the world from the Dayaks of Kayan Mentarang, talking about their oneness with nature
Folk story about the beginning of the world from the Dayaks of Kayan Mentarang, talking about their oneness with nature

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