MALAYSIA DESIGN ARCHIVE
Malaysia Design Archive (MDA) is a project co-founded by Ezrena Marwan, Jac SM Kee, and Simon Soon to map the development of graphic design in Malaysia from pre-Independence to current times. It is a space to trace and document Malaysia’s “endangered” design legacy, to preserve the historical past, as well as to create a resource of Malaysian art and design work.
The space is mostly taken up by their well-catalogued archive of posters, documents, photographs, stamps, and other paraphernalia relating to local and regional history, and there is also a resource bookshelf on art, design, and architectural history. MDA plays host to regular reading groups, talks, and workshops with an exciting line-up of speakers, spanning academic historians, curators, activists, writers, and practicing artists, designers, and architects. They also run a collective blog at O For Other.
By appointment only.
malaysiadesignarchive.org @designarchive malaysiadesignarchive
RUMAH ATTAP LIBRARY & COLLECTIVE
Located at the top floor of the “intellectual block” (as it’s known among Zhongshan tenants), past Muhendaran Sri, Malaysia Design Archive, and Balai Buku Raya, is Rumah Attap Library & Collective. The space was founded in 2017 as a collaboration between Amateur, In Between Cultura, and Au Sow Yee Studio.
Rumah Attap is a library of English-, Malay- and Chinese-language material on cultural studies, the arts, literature, philosophy, and the social sciences curated to build an open and critical alternative knowledge system that can act as a “coordinate” for navigating the city. They are also a space for debate and discourse, occasionally hosting lectures, seminars, reading groups, and workshops in a mix of languages.
By appointment only.
THE RICECOOKER ARCHIVES
The Ricecooker Archives had its beginnings in 2004 as an online shop and scene blog for punk music in Malaysia. It opened a physical store in the Annexe, Central Market, in 2007 and moved to several other locations before closing permanently in 2013. Now, the Ricecooker Archives is a Southeast Asian rock’n’roll treasury and resource centre run by punk-rocker-for-life Joe Kidd of Carburetor Dung, an iconic Malaysian punk band that’s been disturbing the peace since ’91.
The Archives consist of Joe’s own collection of magazine clippings, recordings, books, and posters that he’s amassed over his many years in the regional punk and underground music scene, along with donations from fellow collectors. The Archives are a rare resource centre for a history that often flew under the radar and was thus not documented by any official state records.
By appointment only.