Join artist Sarah Al-Sarraj for a hands-on, creative workshop as part of her exhibition Nar Marratu, that will explore the relationship between worldbuilding and cartography. Today the Mercator Projection continues to inform the maps we use to navigate our own lives, but are there other ways of understanding our world/s? The Mercator Projection of 1569, was designed for colonial powers’ exploration of the colonised world, with Europe at its centre. Over time, the development of more precise mapping technologies, such as aerial and satellite surveying allowed imperial powers to govern and surveil colonised populations, divide regions into modern nation states and identify resources for extraction. While we are taught to understand these representations of the world as objective truth, this workshop will hold space to highlight othered forms of knowledge (local, community-based, feminist, queer). Together, we will imagine above and beyond standardised mapping, introducing ourselves to a range of alternatives. We will ask questions such as: When was this map made? Why was it made? What places, borders and geographical features are represented? Who made it? And who for? How did they understand the world around them? This workshop will explore various maps in use throughout history, including fantastical, radical, community-based, imaginary, strange and enchanted cartographies. Group discussion will touch on counter-mapping, psychogeography, personal/community maps, and encrypted maps. Participants are encouraged to think of themselves, their lived experience and their understanding of place as valuable knowledge. We will then create our own maps and/or navigation devices in line with stories we may wish to tell, physical or imagined destinations we would like to reach, journeys we have been on, emotional endeavours we have withstood, ideas we would like to convey about ourselves, our community, and more. Participants will be invited to prepare by considering:
- A real place that has meaning for you
- A virtual or imagined place that has meaning for you
