Cover, The scanned file of the actual book cover, image source: Private

Work Description

A poetic field guide and artistic promptbook designed to activate imagination in cities where public space is scarce—especially Jakarta. Mixing illustration, text, photography, and game-like quests, it invites readers to perform soft interventions in their urban surroundings, reclaim overlooked places, and contribute to a collective story of presence. The book emerged from a year-long research and design process supported by Locarno Film Festival’s BaseCamp 2025. It’s part publication, part experiment, and part invitation to reimagine what public life could feel like. A visual and spatial reflection on Jakarta’s urban condition, echoing collective public art, field notebooks, and poetic social design.

Publisher Note

Let This Book Be Your Public Space isn’t meant to be finished — it’s meant to be wandered, used, and quietly left behind.
It’s a book that doesn’t want to be read — it wants to be used. Part game, part toolkit, part poetic ritual, this book invites you to interact with the forgotten parts of your city: a park bench, a patch of light, a too-loud hallway, or the inside of a library shelf.

Inside, you’ll find characters who each offer their own lens on public space. Paired with them are quests — small actions, creative instructions, and soft disruptions — that invite you to reclaim your surroundings through presence, play, and invention.

It’s made for cities like Jakarta, where public space is rare — but imagination is not.

Artists’ Book, Art Book

Let This Book Be Your Public Space.

by Jody Agus

Publisher self-published
Release Place Locarno, Ticino, Switzerland
Edition 1st Original edition
Release Date 14th August 2025
Credits
Editor: Jody Agus
Writer: Jody Agus
Author: Jody Agus
Designer: Jody Agus
Artist: Jody Agus
Printrun 10
Work  
Subform Instructional Art Book, Interactive Workbook
Style/Movement Participatory Art, Concrete Poetry, Urban Tactics
Genre/Content Form Action/Project, City Map, Experimental Narrative
Topics Jakarta, Libraries, Public Space
Themes Soft Rebellion, Public Imagination, Resistance, Slowness
Methods Action Performance, Activism, Activity, Illustration
References Inspired by the spirit of Jenny Odell's "How to do Nothing".
Language English
Work Creation Date 20th September 2025 – 14th August 2025
Dimensions 17.0 × 26.0 × 3.0 cm
Pages 95
Content - Notes
- Quests
- A Daddy, The Ghost, The DJ
- Mountains Beyond Mountains
- Burn Baby Burn
- Designated Soft Zone
Technique Digital Offset

last updated 93 days ago

Created by Jodyagus

Edited by edcat, Recent_Works, Jodyagus