Mapping Mapusa Market

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Mapping Mapusa Market is an exploration into how a local Indian market can be creatively 'mapped' or documented at a key moment of change in the retail environment in India. The project will capture collaborative work initiated by the innovative UnBox Fellowships. It will feature a variety of creative voices and modes of working and make these available through an open-access on-line resource. Goa based organisation 'People Tree' identified the value of a sustainable 'map' of Mapusa Market based on a set of exciting and innovative creative responses to the market. Mapping Mapusa Market creatively expands from this vision to investigate how a physically contained but multi-layered public space can be vividly and informatively mapped in ways other than through conventional topographical mapping. It will explore how an interdisciplinary team of creative practitioners can contribute to this process and how material can be published through an open access on-line resource. It will explore what value can be brought to this process through the co-creation of knowledge by collaborators from different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds, drawn both from academia and professional practice, from the creative industries and the business environment. Mapusa Market is both a typical Indian market, and distinctive and unique. As a commercial organism, the market attracts local traders as well as merchants from adjoining states. Every Friday it swells to accommodate hundreds of daily vendors who set up improvised pitches selling home-grown produce, delicacies, spices and toddy. The vast array of merchandise available is reflected in the range of visitors including Goans and local and international tourists who come to do business, browse, socialise, catch up on gossip on or to experience the vibrant atmosphere. The Market can also be understood as an affinity space where the exchange of a range of specialist knowledge takes place, much of it about repairing items that would be discarded elsewhere but are given a new lease of life here. Much of this knowledge is likely to be lost over coming decades. Whilst Mapusa market is self-evidently a thriving commercial environment with fierce competition for space and a bustling and prosperous dynamic, it is also a fragile organism: India is strategically opening up to direct foreign investment (FDI) and the inevitable arrival of large supermarkets means that India's local markets will soon face the same challenges as their global counterparts.To create the map of this vibrant cultural accumulation, a range of market users including shoppers, day vendors and market workers will chart their 'market walk'. Whether portering goods, scouting for trade or browsing for souvenirs each participant will create a vivid picture of their experience of the market. Using specially designed tools for creative production, the project will build up a series of vivid 'cross-sectional' views. Organised into a cohesive body of work and uploaded onto a website that also invites contributions from others, the project will explore the market both as a nexus of cultural, commercial and social relationships, a hub for cultural production and an exciting physical place.