Satria A. Permana
Urban Transformation and Sustainability
River as Beings: Semiotic Embodiments in Yogyakarta’s Temporal Riparian Landscape
The multicultural influence on urban development has fundamentally altered the perception of the river and led to its contamination in Indonesia, progressively polluting reservoir basins and risking the subsurface aquifer. We need a fundamental transformation in both tangible and intangible aspects. De la Bellacasa (2017) frames care as a situated and committed form of a hypothesis to sustain our world, opening it up to new constituencies involving actors and ethics entangled in configurations. This project emphasises a critical reading to prioritise spatial modification and physical intervention with the utilisation of macro and micro territorial approaches, ranging from interdisciplinary archival workshops, fieldwork and cartographies. By thinking with care, we can amplify the river voices, consider the practices affecting the ecosystems and promote collectivity. Organising the practice to recognise the diverse elements of subjects and coexist with the river, constructed into spatiotemporal practices and rituals to redefine its semiotic meaning (Eco, 1976).