{"type":"video","version":"1.0","html":"<iframe src=\"https://www.loom.com/embed/e65b91ddf30d43cb8e059049d8d29478\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"1662\" height=\"1246\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>","height":1246,"width":1662,"provider_name":"Loom","provider_url":"https://www.loom.com","thumbnail_height":1246,"thumbnail_width":1662,"thumbnail_url":"https://cdn.loom.com/sessions/thumbnails/e65b91ddf30d43cb8e059049d8d29478-41ac6d3b6b0a477a.gif","duration":988.606,"title":"Intimate map of Riyadh","description":"Intimate Map of Riyadh presents the early stage of doctoral fieldwork, beginning with map feeding in ArcGIS before moving to a spatial encounter. The main purpose is to understand space before conducting interviews with Najdis who left their mud villages in Najd and moved to Riyadh in its early stages. The intimate map offers an alternative to official maps of state-established spaces by emphasising intimate places shaped by Najdis—such as markets named after villages as sites of economic solidarity—and gathering spots as spaces of social bonding.\n\nIn the map feeding stage, I drew on diverse sources including historical and contemporary maps, public ArcGIS layers, tours of Riyadh in YouTube, X posts, Google Maps, family accounts, and archival images and records. The project layers places across time on a single landmark, combining contemporary sites with official maps from the 1920s to the 1970s, alongside speculated ancient locations of the ‘early people’ of Riyadh. By showing how new places were built upon older boundaries, the map reflects how historical spatial making continues to shape the city today. Family references, including the places of my great-grandfather and his brother, are incorporated to anchor official cartographies within lived histories.\n\nFollowing the map feed with map marking and images, I carried out a physical spatial encounter on 27 Sep 2025 by walking around Riyadh’s old wall—demolished in the 1950s—and other sites inside and beyond the historic city, where some remains still exist while others have disappeared. I then matched these images from my tour of real spaces with archival photographs. \n\nIn the next stage, I will bring the material space into the interviews, either by inviting participants to these sites or by taking the map with me to ask about their locations of dwelling, work, and socialisation."}