After endless sessions of planning, presenting, refining and more planning, The Urban Mapper Project is finally on the go! Last week, we had an Introduction to Cultural Mapping session at Sunway University with Yasmin from #BetterCities, where we covered a lot of ground on what cultural mapping is all about, the motivations behind using it as well as the steps preferably taken for a smoother mapping process. Yasmin also included some good case practices from groups in Malaysia who have done cultural mapping as part of their community engagement activities. The cultural mapping method was still a very new concept for us, especially the international interns but all of them were very attentive and participative during the whole session.
To be honest, the international interns were very quiet when they arrived to the room. I guess, it takes time for them to warm up between each other but after a very fun ice-breaking session, I would say it loosened up the tension in the air of the session being formal and lecture-like.
After the introductory session of cultural mapping, we got to experience a hands-on mapping process where we had to create a "Memory Map" of our own by first, drawing pieces of memory from our childhood on a huge mahjong paper which was provided. Next, we had to draw pictures of who we see ourselves as now or objects that has an association with us, now. After explaining our pictures to our partner, we began matching the similarities of both spectrums.
After the introductory session of cultural mapping, we got to experience a hands-on mapping process where we had to create a "Memory Map" of our own by first, drawing pieces of memory from our childhood on a huge mahjong paper which was provided. Next, we had to draw pictures of who we see ourselves as now or objects that has an association with us, now. After explaining our pictures to our partner, we began matching the similarities of both spectrums.
The activity was fun and it also involved quite a lot of introspection and reflection. It was interesting to see the similarities despite our very different backgrounds that most of us were keen in travelling some part of the world and that we were quite the adventurer when we were younger! I realized that although we are from various countries and our upbringing had stark contrasts, we are essentially growing up together and are exposed to similar things. We are more alike than we think we are!
The team got together after the cultural mapping workshop to go through the plan as to put a theme over our whole project and we came up with "Creating awareness of a healthy diet and lifestyle through colour and art". We decided to instead of tapping into all the existing issues that the PPR has, we would focus on understanding where the nutrition sources for the PPR kids come from and the accessibility of healthy food alternatives.
Overall, the sessions served as an intensive introduction to cultural mapping and despite it being a totally new thing to the interns, they seemed to take all the information in quite well and were very responsive in terms of voicing out their opinions and chipping in what they thought. Looking forward to the engagements we'll be having the next week!
Overall, the sessions served as an intensive introduction to cultural mapping and despite it being a totally new thing to the interns, they seemed to take all the information in quite well and were very responsive in terms of voicing out their opinions and chipping in what they thought. Looking forward to the engagements we'll be having the next week!