Subjective mapping of the Philippines
May 2025 – December 2026
Initiated by the Philippine Women’s University (PWU) , we have begun creating the Subjective Atlas of the Philippines to be published in 2026. A Subjective Atlas is a bottom-up cartographic publication in which the inhabitants themselves map a country, region, or city. The mappings are created during participative production processes with local communities who visualise their perspectives through graphs, maps, drawings, and photography. Belgium-based Designer Annelys de Vet developed a participative production model that has evolved over the years into a participative process through exchange and collaboration, leading to an extensive series of Subjective Atlasses of different regions. Each edition is initiated by a local organisation has agency over the project, which De Vet co-facilitates with a local team.
Workshop, May 2025. Participants developing alternative maps and flags.
In 2025 and 2026, we will organise a series of workshops across the Philippines that aim for more multi-vocal and plural-diverse representations. In these workshops, we will foster local narratives and community insights to deepen the sense of place-based identity and resilience among communities affected by territorial disputes. It is a psychosocial research initiative in which we employ creative mapping to investigate Filipinos’ lived experiences—particularly the emotional and socio-cultural dynamics. The workshops will unite local artists, community members, and fisherfolk in a collaborative exploration of perspectives shaped by the West Philippine Sea conflicts and our interconnection with water.
In this way, the Subjective Atlas-project will to explore the connection between the various economic, ecological, social, and cultural processes that have historically contributed, for better and for worse, to the shape and dynamics of life today. The publications will explore an inventory of traces in the hope that such a compilation will also tell us something more about the potential futures we can imagine from this point forward.
Workshop, May 2025. Workshop set up.
Events
Acknowledgements
The Subjective atlas of the Philippines is supported by the Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines (DTI)
