1. Neoliberal Visions, Post-capitalist Memories:
Heritage Politics and the counter-mapping of
Singapore’s cityscape.
Dr Liew Kai Khiun & Dr Natalie Pang
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Nanyang Technological University

2. Mapping the City-state
• 704 km²
• Population: 5.2 million
• Airports, seaports: Global
Connectivity and local
restrictions
• Competing and complementary
needs: New living and
historical/natural spaces

3. Geometric-ized to Lifestylized:
Mapping Exercises of the
Colonial and Contemporary
Nation-state in Singapore
• Demarcation, Zoning and Griding for Colonial
Capitalism, Industrialization and neo-liberal
political economy
• Scripting and Masterplaning
• Topographical to Cinematical

4. New Media, the Digital Revolution and
the Insurgent Citizenry in Singapore
• GoogleEarth, photoshop and the Democratization of Mapping
• Facebook and the Digital Networked Mapping: Re-mining, re-
configuration and re-platforming of archival materials
• Towards the Historical Nation: Counter-mapping and the Resistance
against Disappearance

5. Singapore’s Mapping Vision
Empire Nation-State Insurgent Citizenry
Vision Hegemonic Futuristic Organic
Political Economy Colonial Capitalism Neo-Liberal Capitalism Post-Capitalist
Spatiality Colonial Port City Global Garden City Place-based City (Newman 2010:
168-9)
Temporalities GMT Utopic Historical
Anxieties Decline Staticity Plasticity
Authorship Guardianship Custodianship Co-Authorship
Politics Expansionist Developmentalist Conservationist
Technology Geometric Imaging Pixelating
Agent Colonial Surveyor Urban Planner Netizen Reconfigurator
Cartographic Single Mapped Paper Building Models Resurrected Networked Images
Production
Knowledge Museum Memory Presence
Repository

6. Resurrection & Re- Co-authored Resuscitation
appearance Rejuvenation • Efforts in historicizing
• Mining, digitalization and • Engaging/Collaboratio place with archival
the cyberpublic sharing of n with state agencies maps and real-time
official and personal in Mapping Exercises images
archival illustrations
Map of the former A proposal for the Rail Corridor exhibited
Royal Naval Base Real time traffic conditions used by
in the premises of the Urban
conservationists to argue against
Redevelopment Authority
new road development through the
Bukit Brown Cemetery

7. Conclusion
• New Media and the multiple surfacing and re-layering
of cartographic imaginations
• The Futuristic and Historical: State-civil society
relations and the negotiations of contrasting mapping
visions