It is necessary to develop the neologism “Astopia”, the topology of Asia, because Asia has its own special topology in the context of globalization, which in turn codified by its contradictory origins. Astopia is helpful in clarifying that a single definition for Asia does not exist. Cultural syncretism and social conglomeration, which altogether cannot be represented in an ordinary manner, carry spatial relations as “unplaceable places.” Astopia is a terra incognita, which is the essential expression of Asian life. The paradoxical nature of Astopia is indeed induced from the problematic definitions of what Asia is.
To put it simply, an astopia is a “non-site,” an un-representable space.Using examples of art projects, films and urban artifacts, artistic research on Astopia examine the idea of Asian topography as an act of writings on places as the continuously dynamic changing becoming. Epically in the context of Asia, where experiences of colonialism, nationalism, diaspora are often interconnected and constantly generate new configurations that take place in everyday reality. Efforts to arrest these dimensions with specific spatial relation is to render the life and death of biospheres and the identity and desire of habitants belonging to the local as new forms of artistic expressions.
In the meantime, astopia also implies utopia, dystopia, heterotopia and atopia etc., all the -pias related to Asias. If we agree with what Jean Baudrillard claimed “The existing order is a topos. Criticism and analysis of this topos permits the elaboration of utopia; the definition and situation of utopia, the critical of utopia and the updating of its means of realization (philosophical, political, economic……)". How can we describe the topos of astopia? What kind of utopia will be constructed according to the topos of the astopia? As Fredric Jameson pointed out that the fundamental dynamic of Utopian politics always lie in the dialectic of Identity and Difference, how should we capture this dialectic in and out of Astopia? All the questions above are crucial and need to be answered cautiously for articulating the concept of Astopia.
Research Cell contact person: Hongjohn Lin