What We See, What We Become.

Before we shape Translating Glodok, we find ourselves asking one question: What if the way we understand Glodok is only one among many?

What we see shapes how we understand, but understanding asks for more than observation alone. It requires a sensitivity to acknowledge that each perspective carries its own truth, shaped by different experiences, distances, and ways of being in the neighborhood.

Through the first volume, we invited participants to encounter the area not simply as a place to see or photograph, but as a living text, one that can be observed, interpreted, and translated in multiple ways. Three separate walks unfolded, each led by a mentor with a distinct curatorial vision, route, and approach. Participants came from varied backgrounds—some familiar with the neighborhood, others experiencing its alleys for the very first time, without expectations of what they might find.

And it was within these walks that different ways of seeing began to unfold. Some participants responded to the relationship between human and natural forces—capturing how litter, growth, decay, and repair coexist to shape facades of the neighborhood. Others were drawn to the mundaneness of the daily, noticing patterns, contrasts, and little details that often go unseen. Transforming everyday scenes into something almost poetic. There were also those who approached the neighborhood through feeling, allowing emotion to guide their images, even when what was captured resisted clear explanation.

What began as something guided gradually expanded into something more open. Participants did not simply follow a vision: they extended it, reinterpreted it, and at times moved beyond it, offering readings of the neighborhood that surprised even those who walk these streets every day.

And from these collective observations, we are constantly reminded.. there is no singular way to see, experience, or understand Glodok. Each perspective adds to what the neighborhood has been, is, and can become.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

As a framework, Translating Glodok extends beyond image-making, where research becomes collective and translation a shared act. Through the exchange between mentors and participants, the project generates new ways of constructing memory and articulating narratives of Glodok from within. As we continue this journey, we remain open to new ways of translating the neighborhood.

We look forward to welcoming more voices and perspectives as Glodok continues to be translated into languages uniquely our own.