Our presence, the way we exist in this world right now and the whole context that gives shape to that existence is explored in this map. The map of orientation, down below, is a way to explore your ideas and ideals, choices, and experiences that lead to the way of how you represent yourself. Self-representation is not only about the appearance of your body but also what happens inside and outside of it and how it’s affected by that. I want to challenge you to think how do factors from the outside of your body influence the way you move, dress, talk and interact with the world.
What experiences made you change your appearance or behaviour, and is there a connection between them? Do you act different in certain spaces? How do you want people to see you and why?
To get a grasp on the structures of power in our society that keep certain bodies in control, we need to get to know our bodies and the intersections between the spaces that influence them first.
''There are intricate processes that situate us between theory and practice as praxis, which must begin to take into account the many ways in which we are identified, the modes of address, our different bodies, and varied epistemologies. Intersectionality allows us to occupy that praxis and standpoint critically. It takes into account systems of oppression within the world that hold marginalized people in place (often at an inferior position) in multiple ways.''
''The paradox of ‘defining’ something like identity, of course, is that it is not static. Even for someone who is thoughtful and self-reflexive, the ways in which one approaches one self and others, changes with time and experience. ''
This is the reason our map is the way it is, to visualise the invisible structures between our bodies and everything that it comes in contact with, into thoughts and then into concrete lines and words onto paper.
Quotations from Uzma Z. Rizvi - Decolonisation as care