IMAGES, (IN)VISIBILITIES, AND WORK ON APPEARANCES

My project is centered on the work of cultural practitioners and activists who are positioned marginally in the Indonesian nation-state today, linked to colonial and postcolonial histories. Situated in Ternate, North Maluku region in Eastern Indonesia, they are renegotiating this marginal status through the multivariate ways they reimagine, emphasize, and remake the region's historical relevance. I especially paid close attention to how they activate memory and history; in reconstructing heritage and identity tied to the region. In the context of a decentralized, post-authoritarian public sphere in Indonesia, Ternate's cultural activists, including heritage practitioners, archivists, youth and student groups, journalists, urbanists, and artists take prominent roles in addressing or redressing marginalized histories, intervene in official narratives, and make visible what was previously excluded or repressed. When I first set out to design the research, entering into my fieldwork period, I had this question framed in mind:

In the age of digital technologies and, specifically in places undergoing democratic transformation, what are the ways in which image-making and place-making practices lead to socio-political transformation?