Malaysia Design Archive

Spells for surveilled streets  with Nida Mushtaq, Akeli Larkian 8pm, 21 May 2026 Malaysia Design Archive Register - Linkin bio Women scouting random streets for paintable walls, climbing wobbly scaffolding in their neighbourhoods, sneaking out before dawn to wheatpaste life-size collages, sipping chai on roadsides while waiting for glue to dry on political posters. These public acts of art-making are not just aesthetic disruptions; they are moments of pleasure in a city built to discourage gathering in joy. اکیلی لڑکیاں has made street art in the capital city of Pakistan since 2019. And watched every piece be erased by authorities - at times, within hours.  But erasure is never total. When wheatpasted works are torn down or painted over by authorities, the glue outlines remain. Unplanned, unglamorous, and impossible to fully remove. These residual marks, alongside a growing web archive of the collective's disappeared work, form an accidental record.  This talk traces that praxis between making and unmaking; between the street and the archive. What it means to document work that was made to be temporary, and whether the archive transforms it into something else: evidence, elegy, excess, or an ongoing act of defiance. Bio:   Akeli Larkian / اکیلی لڑکیاں is a collective of feminist activists and street artists who have been making work in Islamabad since 2019. In Urdu, اکیلی لڑکیاں, literally translated to ‘Girls, Alone’ - often used for girls and women, however many, when they are without a male companion. It is a dismissive phrase used to marginalise women who organise, move, and take up space publicly - unattached, unsupervised, suspect. Our name is a reclamation. We make street art to shift this story and give community to all the akeli larkian out there and to shape and own our city.  Akeli Larkian will be represented by Nida Mushtaq. More about her work can be found on LinkedIn @nidamushtaq .  /

[REGISTRATION IS CLOSED] [EVENT IS NOW AT RUMAH ATTAP LIBRARY & COLLECTIVE] Everyday Life in the Malay World through Manuscripts Date: 15 May, Friday Time: 8pm Venue: Malaysia Design Archive How do historical manuscripts shape the worldviews of their contemporary audiences — and of the generations who “rediscover” them centuries later? As efforts in conservation and digitisation continue to grow, these manuscripts are increasingly recognised as vital cultural and historical resources. Yet beyond these efforts, how can we meaningfully engage with and interpret the knowledge they contain? Join us as Auf A. Said shares his experiences working with Malay manuscripts and offers insights into uncovering histories, everyday life, and cultural memory through these pages. Limited seats available. Kindly register your attendance: link in bio.

Reading Group: Who Tells the Story? On the Colonialism of Anthropology Date: 3pm, Saturday, May 16th Venue: MDA, @thezhongshanbuilding *Sign-up link and readings in bio. This session brings together two texts that examine the relationship between ethnography, knowledge production, and power. Daniel P. S. Goh’s States of Ethnography situates ethnography within the context of British colonialism in Malaya and American colonialism in the Philippines. Introducing the concept of cultural transcription, Goh shows how ethnographic knowledge was produced through translating native societies into categories legible to colonial administrations. This will be paired with the opening section of Bridget O’Laughlin’s Marxist Approaches in Anthropology, which offers a theoretical critique of dominant anthropological methods. O’Laughlin challenges approaches that treat cultures as static and reducible, arguing instead that knowledge is shaped by historical and material conditions and must be understood in relation to broader dynamics of conflict and change. Read together, these texts invite us to consider ethnography and anthropology as historically situated practices implicated in systems of oppression. By placing theory alongside history, the session will explore how knowledge about others is constructed and mobilized. For this session, participants are asked to read: •⁠ ⁠Daniel P. S. Goh, States of Ethnography: Colonialism, Resistance, and Cultural Transcription in Malaya and the Philippines (2007) •⁠ ⁠Bridget O’Laughlin, Marxist Approaches in Anthropology (1975), pages 341-345 (Optional: rest of the paper) Reading list: Linkin bio This session will be moderated by Hazriq Justin Lim. Photo: A football match in Kuala Lumpur, from British Malaya- an account of the origin and progress of British influence in Malaya (1907) by Frank Swettenham (from wikimedia commons)

Graphic designers are currently excluded from Malaysia’s Gig Workers Act. 3pm, 9 May 2026 Venue: Rumah Attap Library The Zhongshan Building On 31 March 2026, the Gig Workers Act 2025 (Act 872) came into force. This new law aims to protect gig workers’ and freelancers’ rights by introducing mandatory minimum standards for contracts, improving systems to resolve disputes, creating a Gig Workers Consultative Council for industry dialogue, and regulating the gig economy through the newly formed Gig Economy Commission Malaysia (SEGiM). While some creative freelancers are currently covered under the Act (such as film production crews, actors, musicians, translators, and photographers), graphic designers are not. Issues around late payments, unpaid work, unfair contracts, and lack of representation in policy discussions (including proposals on minimum income rates) will grow if designers do not have a seat at the table. The Government has indicated that more sectors will be included under the Act based on future research and stakeholder engagement. This is therefore a critical moment for freelance designers, like other creative workers and artists, to organise collectively and advocate for better working conditions, stronger protections, and, if collectively agreed, for inclusion within the recognised categories of gig workers protected under Act 872. Graphic designers must organise ourselves or decisions about our labour, value, and rights will continue to be made without us. Join Malaysia Design Archive together with Art x Law Initiative Malaysia (ALIM) @artxlawmas and KL Design Festival @kldesignfestival for an upcoming town hall to discuss what this means for freelance graphic designers and how we can collectively shape our future.

Join us in an artist talk with our three currently exhibiting photographers at @designarchive this Sunday! Our three featured photographers are Alvin Lau (@alvinlaukb ) known for his photographs of urban terrains and textures, who has shifted his lens away from manmade structures to contemplate the precarious fragments of the natural world that bloom secretly within urban surroundings. Amani Azlin (@amania_ ) is an editorial and fashion photographer who has shared a selection of diaristic photos from her travels and while on location, granting us a more intimate and personal gaze which is at once the core and the reverse of her studied editorial style. Conversely, Nadirah Zakariya (@nadirahzakariya ), known for her personal meditations on womanhood through self-portraiture and floral still lives, has shifted her lens outward to present tender portraits captured during her residency at an artist commune near Mt Fuji, Japan, in 2025.  Each of the artists will share a bit about their photography practice and there will be a chance to ask them questions as well. 🪑Walk-ins are welcome but please arrive early as space will be very limited! 🌷𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘭: 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺 𝘣𝘺 𝘈𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯 𝘓𝘢𝘶, 𝘈𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪 𝘈𝘻𝘭𝘪𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘩 𝘡𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘺𝘢 is a group exhibition on view at The Back Room (@thebackroomkl ) through May 3, 2026. The gallery is open Wednesday–Sunday, 12–6pm. Photo: Nadirah Zakariya, "remnants of motoi’s chairing sessions (from the hatsuyume 初夢 series)", 2025. Archival Pigment on Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper, 29.7 × 42 cm. Edition of 3.

Laughter is another affective reaction that interacts with and reflects the historical, social, and political worlds of Malaysia. Having explored affect, “sentimental” citizenships, and the policies that govern national culture in the last session, we move into the world of humor, and ask: can resistance be funny? More importantly, can our laughter generate change? In this second session of Reel Feelings, a two part reading group series, programmed by Ong Qiao Se and co-moderated with Brendan Yeo and Idris Abdul Ghani of Imagined Malaysia, we keep the National Cultural Policy of 1971 at the heart of our conversation, while exploring the controversial work of filmmaker and songwriter Namewee, Nasi Lemak 2.0. We will discuss how laughter disrupts specific beliefs and ideals about Malaysian-ness, and why many instances of comedy and satire are seen as threats to the formation of national identity. Through Benji & Bahir’s Meter, a short film starring podcaster and political figure Khairy Jamaluddin, we think about power as it is diffused or denied by collective and popular laughter. For this session, participants are asked to watch Nasi Lemak 2.0 and Meter prior to the session. Register through the link in our bio and find the suggested readings there as well. *limited space available. Strictly no walk ins.

An update for the month of April.

Problems a Non-“Problem-solving” Design Practice Has to Solve  by Gideon Kong Date: 12 April 2026 (Sunday) Time: 2pm Venue: Malaysia Design Archive RSVP here: https://forms.gle/ex8orEiZL7AAwAqi7 (link in bio) Summary: Design practices that claim disinvolvement with “problem solving” as an activity or model of practice often still have to navigate or solve larger and more complex problems than those found in individual projects or commissions. Such practices are a problem in themselves when we consider factors around finding, creating, or sustaining projects that demand many things yet seldom come with immediate commercial or societal value. As gideon-jamie, we have been running such a problematic practice since 2017 and are involved in graphic design, small-scale publishing, and several related ad hoc activities. In this talk, we will share a little bit of everything across a selection of different projects and activities. However, instead of proposing any grand vision or long-term solution, we simply describe how we attempt to solve the problems we encounter daily in small, improvisational, makeshift, economical, and practical ways, and how problems are still everywhere around design even when design tries to disassociate itself from them. Bio: gideon-jamie (@gideon_jamie_ ) is a design studio involved in graphic design, publishing, writing, and making exhibitions, with a focus on books, typography, and printing. Started in 2017 by Jamie Yeo and Gideon Kong, they also run Temporary Press (@temporarypress ), a small publisher of artist books and design publications, and Temporary Unit (@temporaryunit ), an ad hoc bookshop and exhibition space for graphic design.

When we watch movies, why do we feel what we feel? In the world of Malaysian film, affect (feelings that are not yet named) is often the unnamed player in political situations. In the unique political environment of Malaysia, what is the affective role of censorship? What is the emotion that accompanies cultural practices of silence, or spontaneous moments of laughter? This is an invitation to “talk” film through affect, and to later examine why and how these reactions arise, and what historical significance such feelings hold. In this first session of a two-part Reel Feelings discussion series, programmed by Ong Qiao Se and co-moderated with Brendan Yeo and Idris Abdul Ghani, we look at the the Malaysian imagination—what it means to be Malaysian, and what seems to be the ideal image of Malaysia—through independent Malaysian films produced in specific historical and political contexts, and the emotional responses they reflect and evoke. In this session, we look at Chocolate by Yasmin Ahmad and One Future by Tan Chui Mui, two short films to be watched prior to the discussion, along with the recommended reading of the National Cultural Policy (1970) and Cinema of Denial (Khoo, 2006). Links to the clips and materials can be found in the registration link in our bio.

Materiality and Gender: The Making of the Self Date: 3pm, Saturday, Feb 28th Venue: MDA, @thezhongshanbuilding *Sign-up link and readings in bio. Jay Prosser's Second Skins elaborates the material underpinnings of gender and sex by critiquing queer theory and incorporating narratives of trans individuals throughout their journeys of transition. By situating the construct of gender in the skin, Prosser highlights the importance of the body without reducing embodiment to idealism. The first two chapters set out his central thesis by engaging Judith Butler's work on gender and performativity alongside concepts within psychoanalysis and neurobiology in tandem with narratives of trans lives. This will be paired with a chapter from Joseph Goh's Becoming a Malaysian Trans Man which focuses on transgender men in Malaysia and their experiences transitioning. A combination of qualitative interviews and theoretical analysis, Goh's work allows us to situate Prosser's work within the lived realities of Malaysian subjects. While the aetiology of gender-sex as a construct is not the central focus of these texts, they allow us to understand how gender takes shape through material sexed embodiment. For this session, participants are asked to read: - Jay Prosser, Second Skins: The Body Narratives of Transsexuality (1998), pp. 27-45 (optional: rest of Chapter 1 & Chapter 2) - Joseph N. Goh, Becoming A Malaysian Trans Man: Gender, Society, Body and Faith, Chapter 4. *Content warning: these texts include discussions of of transphobia, gender-based violence and gender dysphoria This session will be moderated by Hazriq Justin Lim.

How do class divisions and ethnicity interact and affect dynamics within the Chinese diaspora in Malaysia? In these next two Sembang Salon sessions, the first of which is a reading group and the second a field visit, we will read the Introductory chapter and “Chapter 7: Chinese Society as “A Sheet of Loose Sand””in the book “Getting By” by Donald M. Nonini, which firstly, troubles the homogeneity of the Chinese as a group. Secondly, it shows the way class formations operate within a racialised environment, especially the way political alliances are formed. The readings can be found in the link in the registration link in our bio. Sembang Salon is an open, hour-long dicussion session on history, moderated by Brendan Yeo and Idris Abdul Ghani from Imagined Malaysia.

Tokyo Flyers, 2000s–2020s Printed Matter as Cultural Infrastructure This sharing session introduces a personal flyer collection gathered over more than 20 years, mainly from Tokyo’s underground music, art, and club scenes. Rather than approaching flyers as nostalgic design objects, this talk considers them as a form of cultural infrastructure — a medium that once visualized how people gathered, how scenes were formed, and how urban culture circulated before the dominance of social media platforms. Based on an independent, non-institutional practice of collecting and organizing, the session opens a space for discussion on what has been lost, transformed, or made invisible through the digitalization of cultural memory, and asks how contemporary archives might respond to these changes. Profile: Taka Kumazawa is an independent organizer and archivist based in Kyoto, Japan. He runs deepbluesea, a nomadic project focused on printed matter, exhibitions, film screenings, and music events. He has been collecting flyers for over 20 years and is currently developing “Through the Flyer,” an ongoing research and archiving project on urban cultural memory. To register: Link in bio