English and Chinese reported by Zhiyuan Mark Ma, Junyi Yu, Jiaxin Wang
On November 6, 2025, the Entangled Cartographies Conference (Track II: Networked Societies), hosted by Prof. Benjamin Bacon, gathered scholars and students to explore the changing landscapes of mapping, networks, and spatial imagination in the digital age. During this panel, DKU students Zhiyuan Mark Ma, Junyi Yu, and Jiaxin Wang presented the paper Gathering the Cracks: Poetic Counter-Mapping of Informal Networks in Bacheng and their collaborative creative project that inspired the paper. More than twenty students and six faculty members attended the session, during which the presenters also brought their physical bamboo-weaving installation to the scene.
The panel opened with Zhiyuan Mark Ma’s introduction to the theoretical foundations of the project. Drawing on J. B. Harley’s notion that the map is a form of power-knowledge, and Nancy Peluso’s theory of counter-mapping, Mark argued that contemporary mapping practices often flatten spatial complexity and silence local knowledge. Through concepts from Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, Tim Ingold’s line-based anthropology, Steven Feld’s acoustemology, and Castells’s distinction between the space of flows and the space of places, he proposed “poetic counter-mapping” as a method that restores resonance, intimacy, and relationality to spatial thinking. Rather than treating mapping as representation, the project reframes it as listening, weaving, and re-composing the informal networks that sustain everyday life in Jiangnan towns such as Bacheng.
Building on this framework, Junyi Yu offered an ethnographic and artistic account of Bacheng’s spatial transformation. She observed that the town can be divided into three iconic zones: one nearly abandoned, one that still preserves traditional rhythms –– street vendors calling at dawn, fishers waiting at the bridge –– and one that has rapidly developed into a commercial district. She noted that such a landscape reflects the developmental patterns of many towns across southern China. Junyi then described how these observations inspired the use of bamboo weaving and fishing-net techniques, both traditional crafts from Jiangnan region, to build a “map” that records these transitions. Through learning from local artisans, filming everyday routines, and gathering oral narratives, the team envisioned an installation that preserves forms of labor and memory usually omitted from digital cartography. In her words, the goal was to “record the lives and stories that exist outside what a digital map can see.”
The final section of the presentation, delivered by Jiaxin Wang, introduced the project’s digital component. Instead of following conventional web-design logic, the website invites nonlinear, exploratory interaction, foregrounding the aesthetics and poetics of Bacheng. Upon entering the site, users encounter a visual field composed of the textures of bamboo and fishing net, over which floating Chinese and English poems drift like markers. Clicking any poem reveals its corresponding location through photographs and narrative fragments. Jiaxin highlighted one key feature: “Lego-ing Bacheng”, a digitally reconstructed 3D map where users can freely navigate the townscape and unlock stories tied to specific locations.
The discussion opened with a question from David, a DKU student and Bacheng native. He asked about the declining commonness of bamboo weaving and its contemporary relevance. Junyi responded by emphasizing bamboo’s dual identity as both a practical material and a cultural medium, noting its deep historical connections to Jiangnan craftsmanship and everyday domestic life. Their exchange prompted a broader reflection on the ecological and symbolic significance of bamboo in the region.
Another DKU student Matilda showed interest in knowing the project’s future development. Mark shared plans to revise the poems, refine the narrative structure and explore additional artistic media. Jiaxin aimed to further develop the digital platform and expand its interactive vocabulary. Junyi hoped to build a larger, more intricate physical installation that better archives Bacheng’s informal networks.
Prof. Dingyi Xu offered a final commentary, praising the project’s narrative depth, the aesthetic characteristics of the installation, and the highly personal mode of storytelling embedded in both the artwork and website. She highlighted the value of the project’s nonlinear digital form, noting how it opens up new creative possibilities for students across disciplines. As the local market is also gradually disappearing due to ongoing construction, they hope this project can serve the Bacheng community by documenting vendors’goods and their names, together with photographs and contact information provided with their consent. Having received the grant from CSCC, they also hope to expand this work into a more sustained form of community archiving –– one that continues to record, preserve, and circulate the everyday textures of Bacheng’s informal networks.
To conclude the session, the presenters invited audience members to draw a piece of bamboo slip bookmark, with lines of Mark’s poems printed on them. This gesture symbolically extended the poetic memory of Bacheng into the DKU community and beyond, allowing fragments of the town’s voices, textures, and rhythms to travel farther than any map could contain.
Gathering the Cracks demonstrates how mapping can become an ethical practice: one that witnesses, listens, and re-imagines. By weaving together bamboo, sound, oral histories, and poetic resonance, the project reconsiders what it means to map a place — holding space not only for what is visible, but for the fragile, informal, and deeply human networks that inhabit its cracks.
报告：《隙声集：巴城非正式网络的诗性反测绘》
2025年11月6日，由白培耕（Benjamin Bacon）教授主持的 “纠缠制图学”会议的第二专场“网络化社会”（Informal Networks）汇聚了众多学者与学生，共同探讨数字时代中地图绘制、网络与空间想象的变迁图景。在该专场中，昆山杜克大学学生马志远（Mark）、余君仪（Junyi）和王佳馨（Jiaxin）介绍了论文《隙声集：巴城非正式网络的诗性反测绘》，并展示了与论文相关的合作艺术项目。超过二十名学生和六位教职人员参加了此次会议，展示者还将他们的实体竹编装置带到了现场。
专场汇报由马志远对项目理论基础的介绍拉开序幕。他借鉴了J.B.哈利关于“地图是一种权力-知识形式”的观点，以及南希·佩鲁索的“反测绘”理论，指出当代的地图绘制实践常常简化空间复杂性并压制地方性知识。通过引用巴什拉的《空间的诗学》、蒂姆·英戈尔德的以“线”为基础的人类学、史蒂文·费尔德的“声景认知”理论，以及曼纽尔·卡斯特对“流空间”与“地方空间”的区分，他提出了“诗性反测绘”的制图方法，旨在重新构建地图空间的共鸣感、亲密性与关系性。该项目不将测绘视为简单的再现，而是将其定义为对巴城等江南市镇维系日常生活的非正式网络的聆听、编织与重组。
基于此框架，余君仪对巴城的空间变迁进行了民族志与艺术性的阐述。她观察到，该镇可分为三个标志性区域：一个几近荒废；一个仍保留着传统的生活节奏——比如黎明时分街头小贩的叫卖声、桥上等待的渔夫；另一个则已迅速发展为商业区。她指出，这种景观反映了江南许多城镇的发展模式。余君仪随后描述了这些观察如何启发团队使用竹编和渔网技艺这两种江南传统工艺来构建一幅记录这些变迁的“地图”。通过向当地手工艺人学习、拍摄日常活动以及收集口述故事，团队构想了一个装置艺术，用以保存通常被数字制图所忽略的劳动形式与记忆。用她的话说，目标是“记录那些存在于数字地图视野之外的生活与故事”。
展示的最后部分由王佳馨介绍，她阐述了项目的数字组成部分。该网站摒弃了传统的网页设计逻辑，邀请用户进行非线性的、探索性的互动，将巴城的美学与诗学特质置于前景。进入网站后，用户会看到一个由竹与渔网的纹理构成的视觉场域，其上漂浮着如标记般的中英文诗歌。点击任何一首诗，都会通过照片和叙事片段揭示其对应的地点。王佳馨重点介绍了一个关键功能：“乐高化巴城”——一个数字重建的3D地图，用户可以自由穿行于街景之中，解锁与特定地点相连的故事。
讨论环节由昆山杜克大学学生、巴城本地人肖毛宬（David）的提问开始。他提出了竹编技艺的普遍性衰退并且询问了项目的当代意义。余君仪在回应中强调了竹子作为实用材料和文化媒介的双重身份，并指出其与江南手工艺及日常家居生活深厚的历史联系。他们的交流引发了关于竹子在该地区生态与象征意义的更广泛反思。
另一位昆山杜克大学学生吴一凡（Matilda）表达了了解项目未来发展的兴趣。马志远分享了修订诗歌、完善叙事结构以及探索更多艺术媒介的计划。王佳馨旨在进一步开发数字平台并扩展其互动语汇。余君仪则希望构建一个更大、更复杂的实体装置，以更好地存档巴城的非正式网络。由于当地集市也在因建设而逐渐消失，他们希望通过记录摊贩的商品、姓名，以及在其同意下拍摄的照片与联系方式，让这个项目能够真正服务巴城社区。获得昆山杜克大学当代中国研究中心（CSCC） 资助的同时，他们也希望将这一工作进一步拓展为更具持续性的社区档案实践——持续记录、保存并传播巴城非正式网络的日常质地与生活纹理。
昆山杜克大学许丁依教授作了最终点评，她赞扬了项目的叙事深度、装置的美学特质，以及嵌入艺术品和网站中的高度个人化的故事讲述模式。她特别强调了项目非线性数字形式的价值，指出这为跨学科学生开辟了新的创造性可能。
在会议结束时，展示者邀请观众抽取一条竹简书签，上面印有马志远的诗行。这一举动象征性地将巴城的诗意记忆延伸至昆山杜克大学社区及更远的地方，让这座城镇的声音、质感与节奏的碎片，传播到任何地图都无法容纳的远方。
《隙声集》展示了地图绘制如何能够成为一种伦理实践：一种见证、倾听与重新想象的实践。通过将竹材、声音、口述历史与诗意共鸣编织在一起，该项目重新思考了为一个地方绘制地图的意义：不仅为可见之物保留空间，也为那些栖居于缝隙之中的、脆弱的、非正式的的网络保留空间。
