Indeks Penghabisan Manusia (FYP: For Your Poetry)
Category: Publication, Experimental Typography
Writer: Rachmat Hidayat Mustamin
Art Director: Radi Raditya
Publisher: SOKONG!
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This book attempts to explore language, photography, text, and design while also responding to the population census data "Kota Makassar dalam Angka 2021," published by the Central Statistics Agency of Makassar. This poetry book serves as a kind of personal journal by Rachmat Hidayat Mustamin in recording, freezing, and archiving his experiences through interdisciplinary practices that he has been engaged in.
In the FYP: Indeks Penghabisan Manusia manuscript, Radi senses those dilemmas about identity. Where words are seemingly misplaced, the bigger picture tells a story and reflects Indonesian identity from a global perspective. Especially since she moved out of Indonesia when she was 18. There is a disconnection between memories, old beliefs, and her experience now as an Indonesian-Canadian.
“I am lucky to get to see the identity of Indonesia from a global perspective and my current experience living in Toronto. It is a bittersweet experience of self-identity, between the longing for home but also the duality of my roots and the person I am becoming. Through this reflection, I wanted to illustrate and deconstruct this experience and so-called dilemma through the design of this book. I brought up nostalgic elements that drew from my childhood and my taste in design, which is predominantly inspired by Western design, in the book.”
Interestingly, this book was a collaborative work between three places, Rachmat in Makassar, Indonesia, Sokong Publishing in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; and Radi in Toronto, Canada. It is a collaborative experience between an old friend, new friends and just creative souls merging–what they do best–together.