Coastal communities and island populations, such as those in Singapore and Bintan, are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, particularly sea level rise. Coral reefs play a critical role as natural breakwaters, aiding to defend against coastal erosion. However, their survival is threatened by the implications of Singapore’s urbanisation on Bintan —through economic and touristic development—, alongside overfishing, rising sea temperatures, and the potential runoff impacts of industrial developments such as petrochemical plants. The lecture opens with a presentation by Professor Ute Meta Bauer (School of Art, Design and Media, NTU) on sea-based livelihoods in the Riau Archipelago and features lectures by coral restoration diver Rudi (Bintan Black Coral Dive) and Associate Professor Peter Todd, (Experimental Marine Ecology Laboratory, NUS; Director, Tropical Marine Science Institute, NUS) , with a response by Dr Karenne Tun (Director, Coastal and Marine Branch, National Biodiversity Centre, NParks) and moderated by Associate Professor Laura Miotto (School of Art, Design and Media, NTU). The session explores current coral restoration projects initiated by Rudi in Bintan, including nature-based solutions, highlighting their significance for coastal communities reliant on reef coastlines for their livelihood. Returning to urban Singapore, Associate Professor Todd will discuss eco-engineered seawalls that function as surrogates for natural habitats, supporting coral growth while simultaneously serving as coastal defense structures against rising tides.
Tuesday Lecture
26 August 2025, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
The Hall, NTU CCA, Blk 6 Lock Road, #01-10 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108934
The Climate Transformation: Sustainable Societies Series is organised by members of the Climate Transformation Programme (CTP) Cross-Cutting Theme 1: Sustainable Societies research team, Senior Principal Investigator Professor Ute Meta Bauer, research fellow Joshua Vince Gebert, research associate Ng Mei Jia and research assistant AngelaRicasio Hoten.
Sustainable Societies
Senior Principal Investigator, Professor Ute Meta Bauer (NTU ADM)
Principal Investigator, Associate Professor Laura Miotto (NTU ADM)
Principal Investigator, Professor Dr Thomas Schroepfer (SUTD)
This Lecture Series is supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 3 grant [MOE-MOET32022-0006] for the Climate Transformation Programme.
The conference Instruct & Being Instructed seeks to explore the multifaceted role of instructions within the domain of art, from historical and contemporary perspectives. Central to this inquiry is the interrogation of how instructions—whether textual, verbal, or performative—mediate the multifaceted relationships between artists, artworks, audiences, collections or institutions in a wider global context. The conference will critically examine instructions as a tool of artistic authority, a frame to manifest crafts for art-making practices, a form of artistic experimentation and resistance, and it will also reflect on the educational dimension of instructions within the historical and contemporary curricula of art academies. By drawing on theories from curatorial practices, art history, pedagogy, cultural studies, and critical theory, the conference will investigate the ways in which instructions operate as a site of tension between prescriptive frameworks and the creative autonomy of the artist. Through a varied lineup of presentations and panel discussions, Instruct & Being Instructed aims to scrutinise the historical evolution of instructional paradigms in art, the impact of instructions on the materiality of artworks, and the socio-political implications of instructional art creating a critical and inclusive platform to rethink the function and implications of instructions in contemporary art practices, institutional frameworks, and broader socio-cultural contexts.
The conference programme is structured around three thematic panels: “Art and Power,” “Art and Technology,” and “Art and Embodiment.” These themes will be explored through a range of formats—including keynote lectures, artistic performances, presentations, and panel discussions—designed to encourage active dialogue, cross-disciplinary insight, and critical reflection among participants.
The conference is convened by Dr Marc Glöde, Associate Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), in collaboration with Dr. Agnieszka Chalas, Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Education, NTU, and Dr. Sushma Griffin, Lecturer at the School of Humanities, NTU. Collectively, their diverse expertise across curatorial studies, education, art history, and cultural theory informs a dynamic and interdisciplinary approach to the theme of instruction in art.
The conference Instruct & Being Instructed has a hybrid format. The online presentations will be live-streamed at The Hall, NTU CCA Singapore, to welcome in-person participation.
Free upon registration.
PROGRAMME SCHEDULE
Friday, 5 September 2025, 6:30 – 8.00 pm (SGT)
Register: Online / On-site
6:30 – 7:00 pm
Opening remarks by organisers
7:00 – 8:00 pm
[online] Keynote Lecture: Ever Prompt – From “Do It” to Protocol Art
by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, London
8:00 – 9:00 pm
Reception with complimentary refreshments
Saturday, 06 September 2025, 10:00 am – 2:30 pm (SGT)
Register: Online / On-site
Panel 1: ART AND POWER
Moderated by Dr Sushma Griffin, Lecturer in the Department of Art History, School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University
This panel examines the nuanced operations of instructions in their interplay between authority and negotiation within artistic, curatorial, and pedagogical contexts. It considers how certain overlooked elements of arts programming that might seem unwarranted and redundant actually provide value and access relating to the discursive realms of curatorial, artistic, and design practices. It looks beyond received narratives to speculate on the influence and implications of instructions in art and design pedagogies on the longer histories of contemporary art and art institutions.
10:00 – 10:15 am
[online] Constellations of the Paracurricular and Paracuratorialby Dr Karin G. Oen-Lee, Assistant Professor, Art History and Museum Studies, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Centring concepts of the curatorial, the paracuratorial, and the constellation, this presentation situates Nanyang Technological University Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore), a unique research-oriented contemporary art centre, as a “paracurricular” resource for and of the university while also serving as a bridge for non-university publics and collaborators. The Centre’s diverse modes of conducting and sharing research, including but not limited to exhibitions and other curatorial projects, suggest that while exhibition facilities are helpful in convening community around artistic knowledge production, there are multiple and various formats that can contribute to a robust paracurricular environment. Artists’ residencies, publications, and discursive programmes each offer a way to encourage lively transdisciplinary connections to the realm of contemporary art and other fields in ways that tangibly benefit and enrich the experiences of both students and faculty through formal and informal connections. As a brief coda, the Centre’s mode of distributing power and interrogating power structures in higher education through non-curricular and atypical knowledge production can be read differently when compared to another constellation– the student-led extra-curricular explorations of philosophy and theory in mainland Chinese art academies in the 1980s in the context of “high culture fever.”
10:15 – 10:30 am
[online] Framework and Principles of Asian American Critical Pedagogy in Art Education by Dr Ryan Shin, Professor, School of Art, University of Arizona
The Asian American Critical Pedagogy Framework (AACP) addresses and challenges the systemic marginalisation of Asian art and culture within art education curricula and teaching practices. It proposes a new critical approach centered on the lived experiences of Asian American artists and communities. The framework was developed to address the curricular neglect and othering of Asian art and the underrepresentation of Asian artists in art education. The framework consists of four key principles: Asian American critical consciousness, counternarratives and reclamation, heterogeneity and intersectionality, and joy and wellness. The first principle, Asian American critical consciousness, confronts white supremacy and Orientalism by urging educators and students to recognize and critique existing power structures. Counternarratives and reclamation focus on centering Asian American voices, reclaiming their stories, histories, and identities. Heterogeneity and intersectionality recognise the diverse and complex nature of Asian American identities, acknowledging how experiences of oppression and power differ based on factors such as class, gender, age, and ability. Lastly, joy and wellness emphasize the importance of healing and empowerment for Asian American students and educators, fostering psychologically safe spaces for collective mourning, celebration, and exploration. The AACP framework can serve as a foundation for developing culturally relevant curricula that promote equity, inclusivity, and diversity within art education. It challenges the marginalization and cultural erasure of Asian art and culture to dismantle narrow representations that inhibit a full recognition of Asian artistic contributions. Ultimately, this framework aims to disrupt Eurocentric narratives and empower Asian American students and educators to thrive within the field of art education.
10:30 – 10:45 am
[online] Learning what can’t be taught: reflections on Zhang Peili and artistic ‘genealogy’ in narratives of contemporary (Asian) art by Dr Olivier Krischer, Lecturer, School of Art & Design, University of New South Wales
“Can artistic attitude be taught or passed down from one generation to another?” This simple question was at the heart of the interesting curatorial project Learning What Can’t Be Taught, organised at Asia Art Archive in 2021. Focusing on six artists from the China Art Academy, the first national art school in China, established in 1928, the project looked beyond the familiar avant-garde narrative of rupture, to consider similarities and influences across three pedagogical ‘generations’ of artists to emerge in contemporary China—in a period marked by radical material transformation. This paper, originally pitched for that project, draws on unpublished research taking the form of a somewhat speculative genealogy for Zhang Peili, in order to highlight early influences or parallels in the formation of his notably conceptual practice, initially through painting. It considers the curiously experimental nature of his peers at CAA’s No.1 Studio, under the tutelage of painter Jin Yide, who had received experimental training under visiting Romanian artists in 1960s Hangzhou, for example. I speculate on Zhang’s early assertion of conceptual, post-studio art practice might be rooted, or ‘seeded’, in the genealogy of his art education and experiences? Since Zhang was invited to establish the first course on new media art in China, at CAA in the early 2000s, these questions have broader implications for how we understand histories of art and institutions, and not just in the Chinese context.
10:45 – 11:15 am Joint discussion and Q&A
11:15 – 11:30 am Short break
Panel 2: ARTAND TECHNOLOGY
Moderated by Paul Lincoln, Head of the Visual and Performing Arts at National Institute of Education and the Director of the NTU Museum at Nanyang Technological University
Focusing on the entanglement of instructions and technological mediation, this panel explores how tools, codes, and digital systems reconfigure art-making, its reception and teaching. From historical craft practices to contemporary algorithmic and AI-driven approaches, it asks how instructions function as both enabling structures and constraints. The discussion will bridge art, design, and media perspectives with pedagogical concerns about how technology shapes artistic learning and experimentation.
11:30 – 11:45 am
[online] Aesthetic Illegitimacy in the Corpocene by Dr Katherine Guinness, Assistant Professor, Critical Studies in the Department of Art, University of Maryland, College Park and Dr Grant Bollmer, Associate Research Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
This talk describes a central contradiction in aesthetic theory today. On one hand there exists a range of seemingly insignificant, temporary trends linked with the political economy of identity and visibility on the internet; “aesthetics” online are a way of distinguishing oneself, linked with the desire to commodify oneself as an object of attention and, therefore, value. On the other hand are academic discussions that often defer to “art” in an institutionally legitimate sense, using the traditional object of aesthetic contemplation as a route to theorize technology, the body, emotion, and beyond. “Art” has become a way for cultural theorists to signify the legitimacy of their arguments, even though “aesthetics” more broadly, today, point to a range of phenomena that are seemingly illegitimate because of their imbrication with, and thus “corruption” by, capital and value. As we will develop in this talk, the foundations of aesthetic theory and philosophy emerge from a crisis of capital. This talk will return to the earliest development of aesthetic theory, the German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten. In responding to an emerging market for art called into being by a new wealth class, Baumgarten was the writer who transformed the meaning of “aesthetic” from one that merely referred to a kind of sensation or sensibility to its explicit linkage with questions of taste, of good and bad, of value and evaluation. In returning to Baumgarten, we seek to draw out parallels between our present and the context in which aesthetics, taste, and judgment initially appeared as problems for philosophy. If art and aesthetics are ultimately linked with the accumulation of capital and problems of value, then, we ask, what are the possibilities for a “political” art? If it is impossible to escape the link between art and market, then what might it look like to parasite capital today?
11:45 am – 12:00 pm
What Happens When AI Joins the Art Room? Insights from Students and Educators by Dr Joo Hong Low, Senior Teaching Fellow, the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University
This presentation explores the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in secondary art education in Singapore, drawing on classroom-based case studies from selected secondary schools. It investigates how AI tools—particularly generative image models—are being used by students to support ideation, enhance creative expression, and bridge the gap between conceptual thinking and visual realisation. Students responded positively to AI’s immediacy and versatility, noting how it helped them explore multiple possibilities, visualise abstract ideas, and personalise their creative process. At the same time, the presentation critically examines the challenges and limitations of AI in art classrooms. Some students voiced concerns about over-reliance on AI, expressing that it could diminish the tactile, imaginative, and experimental aspects of traditional artmaking. Others noted frustrations with inconsistent or inaccurate outputs, and a perceived risk of homogenisation—where artworks began to resemble one another due to similar prompt-based results. Beyond creative concerns, the talk will highlight key ethical considerations, including copyright, authorship, misinformation, and the need to uphold academic integrity. These issues point to the growing importance of AI literacy in the art curriculum—not just in terms of technical skills, but also in fostering critical awareness, aesthetic judgment, and ethical responsibility. Ultimately, this session advocates for a nuanced and transformative pedagogical approach, where AI is positioned as a co-creative partner rather than a replacement for artistic agency. It proposes that when used intentionally, AI can enrich the learning experience and empower students—if balanced with hands-on practice, teacher guidance, and thoughtful curricular design.
12:00 – 12:30 pm Joint discussion and Q&A
12:30 – 1:00 pm Lunch break
Panel 3: ART AND EMBODIMENT
Moderated by Dr Marc Glöde, Associate Professor and Co-Director of the MA in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices at ADM, Nanyang Technological University
This panel turns to the corporeal and experiential dimensions of instructions, asking how bodies—of artists, audiences, and students—become sites of inscription, transmission, and enactment. By considering performance, pedagogy, and material engagement, the panel explores how instructions shape artistic knowledge not only through words and images but also through embodied practices. The emphasis here connects art history and education with lived, sensorial, and affective registers of artistic instruction.
1:00 – 1:15 pm
Learning through procession: ritual, embodiment, and shared knowledge in Thaipusam by Laura Miotto, Associate Professor and Co-Director of MA in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices, Nanyang Technological University
This talk examines how knowledge is transmitted through embodied ritual practices, focusing on the Thaipusam procession in Singapore. As an ephemeral event, the procession becomes a site where learning takes place collectively—through bodily and sensory experiences in ritual acts—revealing how Thaipusam generates shared knowledge across religious, cultural, and artistic contexts.
1:15 – 1:30 pm
Memories and other instructional works by Heman Chong, Artist
In his ongoing project Memories, artist and writer Heman Chong explores the act of publishing through performance. Each work begins with a short story of around 500 words, written with a very specific form of transmission in mind. Participants are invited through an open call to memorise one story word for word with the help of a personal trainer. The performance ends only when the participant can flawlessly recite the entire text back to the trainer. These stories are never published — not in print, nor online. The only way to “receive” them is by memorising them, investing significant time and effort. Yet this gift is ephemeral: without constant rehearsal, the words quickly fade. Chong first devised this method of “publishing as performance” in 2009 during Ong Keng Sen’s Flying Circus Project at T:>Works in Singapore, which also featured Boris Charmatz’s expo zero, a performance exhibition using only the bodies of artists. As curator Anca Rujoiu notes, Chong’s practice is “a quest for writing, an exploration of its desires and disenchantments as well as the conditions that constitute it.” His works interweave writing, publishing, performing, and collaboration, creating a fluid and dynamic space where instructions shape both the artwork and its audience. In this presentation, Chong reflects on the role of instructions in his practice and how they reconfigure the boundaries between art, memory, and participation.
1:30 – 1:45 pm
Investigating Artistic Authority and Participation through Performative Instruction in Contemporary Southeast Asian Art by Yi Yinzi, PhD candidate at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University
This presentation explores how performative instruction in contemporary Southeast Asian art mediates the complex dynamics between artistic authority and audience participation. On the one hand, artistic instruction can shape, enable, and at times restrict audience participation to the point of compromising participatory agency or even causing discomfort. On the other hand, there are moments in performance art when participants retain the choice to engage or not, based on their interest in the project, their informed knowledge of what may unfold, and their assessment of their own capabilities. This presentation considers Vietnamese artist Pham Ha Hai’s performance at the Asiatopia International Performance Art Festival II in Bangkok in 1999, in which he blindfolded participants and instructed them to smear black ink on their faces without disclosing what was in their hands, alongside Singaporean artist Heman Chong’s Memories, where an instructor reads a roughly 500-word story written by Chong to a participant, who is then required to memorize and recite the story word for word. In these examples, artistic and participatory choices both operate within the aesthetic realm and are shaped by the social realities that contextualize the practice. This raises questions about whether the aesthetic realm can serve as an exception to everyday social practices of acceptance and refusal, the different temporal phases of a project in which participants may initiate or revisit their judgment, and the modern notion of a contract based on mutual consent, where each party is assumed to be capable of making rational choices.
1:45 – 2:15 pm Joint discussion and Q&A
2:15 – 2:30 pm Final Remarks and Closing of Event
Instruct & Being Instructed is supported by CoHASS Interdisciplinary Conference, Symposium, and Workshop Scheme.
This research is an inquiry into curatorial, artistic, and academic networks of exchange that foster a pluriversal understanding of Southeast Asia. It will highlight the potential of open-ended curatorial, artistic and textual endeavours that formulate their own modus operandi. Analysing motivations, methods, and audiences of three distinct art initiatives by local practitioners will provide valuable insights for the writing of future cultural policies and alternative metrics to evaluate the impact of nonconforming approaches within regional studies. This will reshape and expand policies and programmes that seek to internationalise or regionalise Singapore art scenes. Acknowledging the long-term impact of such critical thinking and the creation of alternative knowledges and transnational networks would advance traditional perspectives in Southeast Asian scholarship and its funding mechanisms.
Research Outputs
Understanding Southeast Asia as a “Geocultural Formation”: Three Case Studies of Artistic Initiatives from the Region Closed-Door Forum
Programme
Welcome by Ahmad Mashadi, Introduction by Ute Meta Bauer and David Teh
ROUND-ROBIN: INTRODUCING THE CASE STUDIES, response by John Tain
The Flying Circus Project, Introduction by SEON, Presentation by Ong Keng Sen
Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary Art and Modern Art in Asia, Introduction by Ho Tzu Nyen, Presentation by Thanavi Chotrapdit, Vera Mey and Roger Nelson
The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia, Introduction by Ong Keng Sen, Presentation by Ho Tzu Nyen
CONVERSATION: PATRICK FLORES & HSU FANG-TZE, moderated by Siddhartha Perez
CONVERSATION: GRIDTHIYA GAWEEWONG & MELATI SURYODARMO, moderated by Ute Meta Bauer
PANEL: HEIDI ARBUCKLE & KATHLEEN DITZIG, moderated by David Teh
Granted by
Accompanying the Non-Aligned exhibition is a library of over 50 books on postcolonialism, decoloniality, the history of the Cold War, the Non-Aligned Movement, archiving, as well as theory of the moving image and publications on and by John Akomfrah, Naeem Mohaiemen, and The Otolith Group. Authors include Frantz Fanon, Stuart Hall, and Richard Wright, as well as Kodwo Eshun, Rosalind C. Morris, Bojana Piškur and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, among many others.
In light of COVID-19, we have removed the reading corner for the safety of our visitors.
In place of the physical Reading Corner, the bibliography list and selected texts on or in conversation with the artists were made available for the public to organise their own online reading groups. These additional texts including articles by Vijay Prashad and Elspeth Probyn, and book chapters by Adil Johan and S.R. Joey Long.
Course Details
Date: 10 September 2022, Saturday
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 6 Lock Road, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108934
Course Fee: $85.60 (incl. GST), per adult/child pair
For enquiries, please email ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg
About The Course
Edible Wild is a 2-hour workshop aimed at bringing parents and their children closer to nature. Despite the greenery that surrounds us in our concrete jungle, it is easy to overlook the plants that flank our sidewalks. As the world moves at an ever-increasing pace, we need the occasional reminder to slow down and reconnect with the earth – and one of the best ways to do so is to learn how to care for it.
This workshop is a gentle introduction to the myriad of herbs – both common and uncommon – that can be found growing around our garden city, as well as a chance to understand their history and uses. Participants will learn simple plant identification techniques, understand the structure of a plant, as well as pick up basic gardening skills that they can use at home. The overall goal is to renew a sense of wonder in our green companions, while providing the skills to identify and care for them.
At The End of the Course, You Will…
● Learn how to identify edible local plants from The Farm at NTU CCA Singapore
● Learn general plant identification techniques (leaf shape, flowers, stem structure etc.)
● Pick up basic gardening techniques to grow and care for your own edible greens (proper watering, checking/enriching the soil, checking for pests, pruning & propagation)
● Create simple infusions with ingredients from the garden
Target Audience
Parent/child groups where the children are 7 years old and above.
Entanglements – Writing The Environment
Course Details
Date: 21, 22, 24 & 25 Feb 2022
Time: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Location: NTU CCA Singapore, The Seminar Room, Block 37 Malan Road, Singapore 109452
Course Fee: $856 (inc. GST) Skillsfuture credits applicable for Singaporeans.
Registration has closed.
For enquiries please email ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg
About the Course
Entanglements – Writing the Environment is a 4-day course which offers participants the opportunity to develop their writing skills and interests in ways that promote and illustrate environmental awareness, concerns, and sensitivities.
Participants will explore diverse issues of the environment captured in writing through experimenting with a variety of writing forms from the glossary definition, annotations, essay, review, poetry, short fiction and novel.
The course format will include examination of literary texts related to environmental themes, class discussions, as well as writing and editing practice to texts produced throughout the course.
By the end of this course, participants will have a new literary appreciation and increased confidence in writing about the natural world. Join us in the sandbox of literature to explore new ideas, experiment with language, and arrange words in new and exciting ways with like-minded individuals.
What You Will Learn
1. To understand different formats of writing and writing conventions that can be applied to other facets of daily life.
2. To integrate environmental concerns in writing of fiction and non-fiction.
3. To identify and analyse developments in the field of environmental literature through the study of specific works.
4. To develop a personal style of writing by connecting ideas and creating an effective narrative.
Who Should Sign Up
Artists, Cultural Producers, Curators, Researchers, Educators, Naturalists, Editors, Art Critics, Budding Writers or someone who simply enjoys writing
Course Details
Date: 18 – 20 May 2022
Time: 9am – 5pm
Location:NTU CCA Singapore, The Seminar Room, Block 37 Malan Road, Singapore 109452
Standard Course Fees: $2247 (full fee), $674.10 (Cat-A SSG Funded Courses), $254.10 (ETSS and MCES)
Register here.
For enquiries, please email ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg
About this course
Developing projects in the cultural sector comes with distinctive considerations unique to challenges in the field. Some examples of cultural sector projects include exhibitions, performances, festivals and other public presentations.
In this 3-day programme designed for cultural practitioners and arts administrators, participants will develop the competencies and skills for planning and controlling art projects from ideation to completion. The course will examine the project management life cycle and address issues that drive or derail successful project outcomes. Participants will learn to define project parameters, identify and enrol stakeholders and use effective project management tools to plan, organise and track progress.
Cultural sector projects often involve multiple, complex sources of funding. The processes involved in receiving the funds may not follow a regular schedule and subsidies sometimes are received after an event is over. These issues can create uncertainty in the financial management of cultural sector projects. Project managers need to be agile in the both areas of budgeting and financial management in order to enhance project outcomes.
This programme will also cover grant writing, an important aspect of project development and management. With the understanding that every grant application is evaluated at various stages, participants will learn how to tackle the different aspects of a grant application. Through hands-on writing practice, participants will navigate grant procedures, regulations and evaluation criteria and most importantly, favourably position their projects and increase their chances of receiving funding.
Who Should Sign Up
Arts Managers, Artists, Art Administrators, Curators, Researchers, Arts Educators, Production Managers, Cultural Workers, Arts Enthusiasts
Learning Outcomes
1. Identify key issues in project development life cycles specific to the arts.
2. Write a basic project proposal, timeline, and budget.
3. Identify potential funding sources including grants
4. Present and discuss proposals in a clear and persuasive manner.
5. Understand the current landscape of project development in the Arts in Singapore.
6. Navigate project development in times of crisis and force majeure.
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore is proud to present Open College, a new educational initiative for everyone who is passionate about personal and professional growth and development in the arts sector.
Open College programmes are offered on 2 tracks; Discovery and Immersive Series. Discovery Series programmes are short exploratory courses that allow participants to explore topics outside their usual fields of interest, and acquire basic knowledge and skillsets that may be transferrable to other areas of study and work. By contrast, Immersive Series programmes are more in-depth and led by professional educators, researchers and critical thinkers in their fields of expertise. Through a blend of practical projects and discussions to stimulate critical thinking and dialogue, participants will deep dive into a subject matter and gain new perspectives.
Making it Happen!
Developing Projects for the Cultural Sector
Course Details
Date: 27-29 September 2021
Time: 9am-5:30pm
Location:NTU CCA Singapore, The Seminar Room, Block 37 Malan Road, Singapore 109452
Standard Course Fees: $2247 (full fee) $674.10 (Cat-A SSG Funded Courses) $254.10 (ETSS and MCES)
Registration for this course has closed.
For enquiries please email ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg
About this course
Developing projects in the cultural sector comes with distinctive considerations unique to challenges in the field. Some examples of cultural sector projects include exhibitions, performances, festivals and other public presentations.
In this 3-day programme designed for cultural practitioners and arts administrators, participants will develop the competencies and skills for planning and controlling art projects from ideation to completion. The course will examine the project management life cycle and address issues that drive or derail successful project outcomes. Participants will learn to define project parameters, identify and enrol stakeholders and use effective project management tools to plan, organise and track progress.
Cultural sector projects often involve multiple, complex sources of funding. The processes involved in receiving the funds may not follow a regular schedule and subsidies sometimes are received after an event is over. These issues can create uncertainty in the financial management of cultural sector projects. Project managers need to be agile in the both areas of budgeting and financial management in order to enhance project outcomes.
This programme will also cover grant writing, an important aspect of project development and management. With the understanding that every grant application is evaluated at various stages, participants will learn how to tackle the different aspects of a grant application. Through hands-on writing practice, participants will navigate grant procedures, regulations and evaluation criteria and most importantly, favourably position their projects and increase their chances of receiving funding.
If you are a…
Arts Manager
Administrator
Artist
Curator
Researcher
Arts Educator
Production Manager
Cultural Worker
Arts enthusiast
Interested in…
Project development life cycles specific to the arts
Available project management tools and communication.
Identifying and enrolling stakeholders.
Identifying potential funding sources including grants.
Project development in times of crisis and force majeure.
You will learn how to…
Identify key issues in project development in the arts.
Write a basic project proposal, timeline, and budget.
Present and discuss proposals in a clear and persuasive manner.
Understand the current landscape of project development in the Arts in Singapore.
Concepts of Concern – A Lexicology of Ecology
Course Details
Date: Monday, 6 December 2021
Time: 7 – 10 pm
Delivery Mode: Online
Standard Course Fees: SGD 90.95 (inc. GST)
REGISTER HERE.
For enquiries please email ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg
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About the Course
Concepts of Concern – A Lexicology of Ecology is a survey of terminology in social, cultural and political ecology. Old and new terms such as recycle, sustainable, green, renewable, biomass, climate change, carbon footprint, global warming or anthropocene constitute what can be called concepts of concern. They are used to propose solutions to waste, advance environmental justice and imagine new worlds, but also to justify new forms of resource extraction, industrial production and economic globalisation as necessarily eco-centric.
The 3-hour online course traces the evolution of specific eco-centric terms and their corollary discourses since the global environmental movements of the 1960s, and examines a lexicology of ecology as a springboard to engage the emerging and heterogeneous field of ecocriticism. This course will also discuss several artistic responses that operate outside the bounds of terminological discourses and its trappings.
This course is divided into three main sections:
Part 1: Overview of dominant terminology in social/cultural/political ecology since the 1960s.
Part 2: Critical examination of selected terms, such as their use in corporate propaganda and political narratives.
Part 3: Survey of non-terminological/artistic responses to the crisis of ecology.
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Your Course Instructor
Jegan Vincent de Paul is an artistic researcher with an interest in large-scale technopolitical phenomenon with a focus on physical infrastructures. He received his Ph.D in Art, Design and Media from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2021. His doctoral thesis Infrastructure, Narrative, Impact: A Counter-Reading of Belt and Road uses art as a research methodology to show how “the Belt and Road” is a rhizomatic global narrative constructed in the process of interpretation and analysis. He has worked internationally as a researcher and designer and was a visiting scholar and lecturer at the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (2010–12). He has exhibited at the 4th ZERO1 Biennial in San Jose, California, Space in Kingston, Jamaica and the Centre for Contemporary Art in Singapore. Vincent de Paul holds a Master of Architecture from University of Toronto and a Master of Science in Visual Studies from MIT.
Open College programmes are offered on 2 tracks; Discovery and Immersive Series. Discovery Series programmes are short exploratory courses that allow participants to explore topics outside their usual fields of interest, and acquire basic knowledge and skillsets that may be transferrable to other areas of study and work. By contrast, Immersive Seriesprogrammes are more in-depth and led by professional educators, researchers and critical thinkers in their fields of expertise. Through a blend of practical projects and discussions to stimulate critical thinking and dialogue, participants will deep dive into a subject matter and gain new perspectives.
DESIGN EARTH‘s latest project is a series of fables that addresses the elephant in the room—the climate crisis—by animating charismatic figures from natural history museums. This design research identifies and leverages figures from the collections all while unsettling the museum apparatus—the devices, archives, histories, and audiences. Some such figures include a taxidermy of an African matriarch elephant, the skeleton of a stranded blue whale, and a composite structure of a Diplodocuscarnegii. The fragmentary remains of such creatures are animated, brought back to life, so to speak in rhyming verse, colorful imagery, and with some poignant humor. These speculative afterlives stir up potent trouble on the breath-taking capture of life in the Anthropocene to ask how cultural institutions may be responsible to calls for decolonisation and decarbonisation. In Singapore, this hands-on, participatory workshop will focus on the cultural prehistory, present, and speculative futures of the Singapore saltwater (estuarine) crocodile and the Malayan tiger. Facilitated by Rania Ghosn, El Hadi Jazairy, and DESIGN EARTH team member Kelly Koh. Beginning with the Artist Talk on 13 June, participants will engage in DESIGN EARTH creative methodologies including site visits and the building of a research archive while looking into the facts and fictions of these creatures and their homes.
For registration, please visit here.
DESIGN EARTH was founded by Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy in 2011. The design research practice deploys the speculative project—drawing and narrative—to make public the climate crisis. Their work has been featured internationally—most recently at Venice Biennale, Bauhaus Museum Dessau, SFMOMA, Milano Triennale—and is in the New York Museum of Modern Art permanent collection. Ghosn and Jazairy are authors of Geographies of Trash (2015); Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment (3rd ed. 2022), The Planet After Geoengineering (2021) and Climate Inheritance (2023). DESIGN EARTH has been recognized with several awards, including United States Artist Fellowship, Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Faculty Design Awards, and Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Awards.
Rania Ghosn (Beirut, b. 1977) is Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS) in Urbanism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. El Hadi Jazairy (Algeria, b. 1970) is Associate Professor of Architecture and Director of Master of Urban Design degree program at the University of Michigan.
Join DESIGN EARTH co-founders and co-directors Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy for their first presentation in Singapore, where they will share insights into their collaborative research practice centred on the speculative architectural project as a mode of making the climate crisis public. Their design research brings together spatial history, geographic representation, projective design, and material public assemblies to speculate on ways of living with legacy technologies on a damaged planet. Recipients of the United States Artist Fellowship and the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers, among other honors, Ghosn and Jazairy have made a practice of telling complex and unwieldy stories of the Earth. Learn more about their ongoing explorations of visual and spatial storytelling.
Friday, 13 June 2025
6:30 – 8:30 pm
The Hall, NTU CCA Singapore
6 Lock Rd, #01-09/10 Gillman Barracks 108934
Free registration here.
Isabelle Desjeux is a Umeå (Sweden) and Singapore-based artist and researcher. Using her training in Molecular Biology, she creates new kinds of scientific method-based artworks. Working closely with scientists, she encourages others to cross the divide and take on the role of scientists in her interventions, whether in a class, during a workshop, or as part of an installation. As such her work has often been labelled as participatory, with “experiment” being a strong part of her practice.
She received her MAFA from Lasalle (2011), was the recipient of both the French-Singapore New Generation Artist (2011) and the Lasalle Research Fellowship (2017). Her work has been exhibited in museums across Singapore, in Japan and USA. She teaches regularly across disciplines from pre-school to post-graduate level, inviting students into her practice.
Ceci n’est pas une exposition. This is not an exhibition. Perhaps this sounds like a counter-intuitive way to introduce an exhibition, or a space like this that has a lot in common with exhibitions.
So if this is not an exhibition, what is it? The French word “expérience,” sounds like the English word “experience,” but translates to “experiment.” It is definitely both an experiment and an experience. It is also a project, comprising interactive gallery-based installations and the activation of the ideas explored in those installations through related programmes. We borrow the idea that “Ceci n’est pas…” or “this is not…what it seems to be” from the Belgian artist René Magritte (1898-1967). Hopefully, this invites us to think about what is possible when one looks beyond what seems to be, and instead thinks about what could be.
Ceci n’est pas une exhibition, but it is art, it is science, it is play, it is imagination, it is nature, it is technology, and it is, above all, an invitation, and a space to be activated by your presence and participation.
This project presents the work of Dr Isabelle Desjeux, an artist, scientist, and educator who spent 25 years in Singapore, from 1999 to 2024. The project is simultaneously a reflection on her training as a molecular biologist, her experiences making art and building community, and a proposition for things that are yet to come. Things that she will do, and things that she hopes that you will take in new directions. Now, having recently relocated to Sweden, she is certain that some aspects of her practice in Singapore will adapt to her new environment, and some will not be transplantable.
Desjeux’s interests in following questions down meandering paths, tapping into curiosity about the environment, and in sharing meaningful experiences with others are common threads throughout her work for the past 25 years. This project invites you to be part of these experiences—not by simply viewing or learning from the installation areas within the gallery, but by participating in them, and making them your own. If you are ready to start down some meandering paths, you should stop reading here, and jump right into the experiment!
For those of you who are interested to learn more, here are a few more facts and speculations about this work, and the artist-scientist behind them.
The works in these galleries are just some of the many projects that Isabelle embarked upon while in Singapore. They were selected for this presentation as some of the pieces that best embody her way of working by collaborating with and learning from others; her interest in iterating projects in different spaces and contexts; and her genuine curiosity for the world.
Isabelle enjoys the quote by filmmaker Agnes Varda that, “I don’t want to show things, but give people the desire to see.”
You might see evidence of Isabelle’s own interest in giving people the “desire to see” in her work with lenses and modes of refracting images. In her playful explorations of cameras through low-tech manipulations of light inside the gallery you will find variations on the camera obscura – the term for a “dark chamber” in Latin and an important ancestor of the photographic camera that dates back to antiquity. The simple design of a camera obscura projects an inverted image of the outside world into a darkened space via a small opening.
Isabelle’s series of cameras obscura include both small scale sculptural objects designed to be worn over the viewer’s head (her series of papier-maché cameras include a teapot and several objects that look like aquatic creatures!) and larger-scale chambers that visitors can step inside. Her experiments with pinhole cameras operate on the same principle, using a small light-proof chamber containing light-sensitive paper and the timed uncovering of a small pinhole to expose that paper and make it a photograph – an image “written in light.” To see the image, this paper would have to be developed in a darkroom, which is another one of Isabelle’s objects that you will encounter: a light proof box that is small enough to carry out into the world. This wooden crate has been outfitted with the legs of well-worn jeans to cover the photographer’s arms and a small red viewing window that allows viewers to peer at the evolving photograph inside while filtering out the wavelengths of light that would overexpose the paper inside. Like many of her objects, this one begs multiple questions. Is it a work of engineering? A work of design? A work of art? Is it a tool to create something else, or an object of curiosity in its own right?
In the section dedicated to cameras, you will also find a fuchsia jumpsuit worn by Isabelle on her daily visits to neighbourhood community spaces for the Lengkok Bahru Pinhole Project (2019). Can an article of clothing be a way of making images? Is the invitation for community members to co-create photographs about the images themselves, or the relationships that can be formed by coming together to look at the world differently?
Nearby to the artists’ cameras, we find the Insect Inventorium (2023-2024), presented as a collaboration with the artist Quek See Yee. This project involves looking at and getting to know insects that have already been studied by entomologists, then using materials gathered from the natural world to imagine and visualise insects that might someday be discovered or known to us. Is the artist-scientist’s role to observe, or to speculate? Is it possible to do one without the other? Is science, or art, a fundamentally solitary endeavour, or a group activity?
On the other side of the gallery’s partition wall, an assortment of Isabelle’s “interactive objects” including a scarecrow and a large bird mask, bring up slightly different questions about our modes of engaging with the world around us. Does a functional scarecrow, activated by the weight of birds resting on it, protect us from or bring us in dialogue with our avian neighbours? How can interactivity remind us of how we are animals and sensory beings, part of the ecosystems in which we live?
In another section of the gallery, we encounter the House of Weeds (2020-2024), presented as a collaboration with the artist Debbie Ding. This project explores local weeds as botanical specimens brought together as subjects to be observed and investigated (especially by small observers of the world!), and as components of a sonic machine that integrates these plants into its electrical circuitry. Is it an interactive art installation? An educational experience? An example of citizen science? A carefully engineered series of surprises?
At the entrance to the gallery, we find Heavealogy – a series of works related to the study of the Parà rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis. This series is simultaneously an investigation and portrait of the plant itself, including its exploding seeds, and research into why and how this type of tree was planted in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. It also provokes questions of what our understanding of this plant might mean for our future, and the future of the ecosystem in which it grows. In 1000 Rubber Seeds and One Mutant (2014), one of the works in this series, we see some of the threads of Isabelle’s practice woven together—her facility with photographic imaging, her curiosity for the interactions of nature and culture in Singapore and Southeast Asia, and her experience as scientific researcher with extensive knowledge of genetics. All of this is brought together by her humorous sensibility and penchant for finding inspiration and true beauty in the absurd and the counterintuitive. An artist-scientist who has operated in the formal and informal spaces of both art and science, and someone who has been part of the Institute of Unnecessary Research as the Head of Failure and later the Head of Curiosity Awareness, Isabelle Desjeux asks questions, experiments with process, gleefully deviates from plans, and invites others to do the same. In the artists’ book written to accompany the Heavealogy project in 2018 she invites and implores her readers to: “Ask questions with CURIOSITY, seek answers with EXCITEMENT, but leave a place for FAILURE in your interpretations.”
4 October – 7 November 2024
Free Entrance
Gallery, Level 2
Alliance Française de Singapour
Opening hours
Tuesday to Friday: 1.00 pm – 7.30 pm
Saturday: 9.00 am – 5.00 pm
Artist
Dr Isabelle Desjeux, artist-scientist
Collaborators
Quek See Yee, multidisciplinary designer and art practitioner
Debbie Ding, an artist-scholar
Exhibition Curator
Karin G. Oen
Director, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
After a very successful first iteration of Climate Futures #1: Cultures, Climate Crisis and Disappearing Ecologies its second convening wants to build on its discussions and expand its understanding of the decline in cultural and ecological diversity in the region. It became very clear that such conversations require space and time to process complex issues, if we do not want to simplify and allow more than one way to process how people feel about their situations and want to be heard. Our futures require us to go beyond the status quo of current modes of operating. To not lose cultural knowledge and biodiversity Climate Futures #2: Belonging & Shared Responsibilities will share various narratives and practices that are already in place. It wants to further provide access to communities outside state and institutional structures to further nurture understanding of change in responsibilities and accountability.
The summit intents to further map how the climate crisis informs our contemporary world, and how diverse cultures can adjust or adapt without losing a sense of purpose. It comprises of discussions into alternative approaches to regional studies focusing on urgencies such as rising sea-levels and temperatures and the impact on natural resources of the region. A particular focus will be on areas such as the Mekong River and Delta (Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam) and its water street to Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines including the Straits that plays an essential role in the regions shared history.
The holistic approach of Climate Futures #1: Cultures, Climate Crisis and Disappearing Ecologies showed already how it can successfully stimulate a debate between artists, designers, and architects, scientists, environmentalists, as well as local voices and policy makers. We seek to reach out to an even wider public including younger scholars and practitioners, as well as community leaders and policy makers from the ASEAN region.
The future of our shared prosperity relies on our collective ability to create an inclusive and sustainable foundation for growth.
Read the programme brochure here.
Thursday, 26 October – Saturday 28 October 2023
Sokhalay Angkor Villa Resort, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Thursday, 26 October
Join the livestream here with the passcode 668981.
9:30am Registration & Coffee
10:00am Opening Addresses
Dr Piti Srisangnam, Executive Director, ASEAN Foundation
H.E. Min Chandynavuth, Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Cambodia
Prof. Tim White, Vice President (International Engagement); President’s Chair in Materials Science and Engineering; Professor, School of Materials Science & Engineering.
Welcome and Introduction by co-curators Prof. Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, and Professor School of Art, Design, and Media, NTU Singapore and Magdalena Magiera (Germany/Singapore), Curator Residencies and Programms, NTU Centre of Contemporary Art, Singapore
10:30am The Art of Living Lightly, Keynote Lecture by Rachaporn Choochuey (Thailand), Architect, Co-founder, Design Director, all(zone) ltd
11:40am Between Bots and the Biosphere: Machine Philosophy, Media Ecologies, and Digital Hieroglyphs for Climate Adaptation, Case Study by Nashin Mahtani (Indonesia), Director, PetaBencana.id
12:00pm An Uncommon History of The Common Fence: A Prologue (To the Coast), Case Study by Jason Wee (Singapore), Artist, Writer, Curator
12:20pm Sharing Climate Futures: Developing tools for climate care and action, Case Study by Prof. Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore), Founding Director NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, and Professor School of Art, Design, and Media, NTU Singapore
1:00pm Discussion with Rachaporn Choochuey (Thailand), Nashin Mahtani (Indonesia), and Jason Wee (Singapore). Moderated by Prof. Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore)
3:30pm Belonging & Sharing Responsibilities, Closed Workshop by Claudia Lasimbang a.k.a Yoggie, Technical Coordinator Watersheds and Communities, Forever Sabah, Philip Chin a.k.a. Linggit, Technical Coordinator Certified Sustainable Palm Oil, Forever Sabah, and Yee I-Lan (all Malaysia), artist
Friday, 27 October
Join the livestream here with the passcode 400242.
8:45am Registration & Coffee
9:00am Welcome & Introduction
9:10am Creative Digital Lab: how artists, cultural and creative professionals and technologists work together to explore the potentials of XR technology in protecting heritage, safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and contributing to climate action. Lecture by Kamonrat Mali Chayamarit (Thailand), Culture Programme Officer, Lao PDR alternate Focal Point, UNESCO Culture related Conventions Advocate
9:40am Ecology for Non-Futures, Case Study by Binna Choi (South-Korea), Artists, part of Unmake Lab
10:20am Climate impact on social process and social structure, Case study by Daovone Phonemanichane (Laos), Strengthening Climate Resilience Project Manager, Oxfam Mekong Regional Water Governance Program
10:40am When Nature has Economic Value, Case Study by Som Supaprinya (Thailand), Artist
11:20am Discussion with Kamonrat Mali Chayamarit (Thailand), Binna Choi (South-Korea), Daovone Phonemanichane (Laos), and Som Supaprinya (Thailand). Moderated by Bejamin Hampe (Australia), Project Director, KONNECT ASEAN
1:00pm Glimpse of Life on the Water, Closed Workshop Sessions by Sovann Ke (Cambodia), Project Manager, OSMOSE
Saturday, 28 October
Join the livestream here with the passcode 353177.
8:45am Registration & Coffee
9:00am Introduction & Welcome
9:15am Every (de)Force Evolves into A (de)Form, Lecture by Gahee Park (South-Korea), Curator, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
10:00am Pedagogy, Community, Art: Bottom-up Urbanism at Phnom Penh’s Wat Chen Dam Daek, Case Study by Lyno Vuth (Cambodia), Artist, and Eva Lloyd (Australia), Lecturer, University of New South Wales (UNSW)
10:20am Luang Prabang: From Cultural Landscape into Practice, Case Study by Phonepaseth Keosomsak (Laos), Architect, Artist
11:00am Snare for Birds: Rebelling Against an Order of Things, Case Study by Kiri Dalena (Philipines), Artist
11:20am Travelling through time, Case Study by Malin Yim (Cambodia), Artist
11:40am The New Word for World is Archipelago, Case Study by Nice Buenaventura (Philippines), Artist
12:00pm Discussion with Nice Buenaventura (Philippines), Kiri Dalena (Philipines), Phonepaseth Keosomsak (Laos), Gahee Park (South-Korea), Lyno Vuth (Cambodia), and Malin Yim (Cambodia). Moderated by Magdalena Magiera (Germany/Singapore)
2:30pm Visit of Blue Art Centre. Welcome by Sareth Svay (Cambodia), Artists, Director, Blue Art Centre
3:00pm Closing workshop by Cynthia Ong (Malaysia), Chief Executive Facilitator Forever Sabah Institute, LEAP
Curated by NTU CCA Singapore
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director and Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Residencies and Programmes
Supported by
ASEAN Secretariat
ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund
Mission of the Republic of Korea to ASEAN
ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting for Culture and Arts
Programme support by Ministry of Culture and Fine Art, Cambodia
PROJECT PARTNERS
ASEAN FOUNDATION
Since the formation of ASEAN in 1967, ASEAN has embarked on a journey to accelerate economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in the region. After three decades, ASEAN leaders recognised there remained inadequate shared prosperity, ASEAN awareness, and contact amongst the people of ASEAN. As a result, ASEAN leaders established the ASEAN Foundation during the ASEAN 30th Anniversary Commemorative Summit in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on 15 December 1997.
KONNECT ASEAN
As the post-Cold War reality of a new world has taken shape and formed new directions and conversations, ASEAN has re-entered the contemporary art space via collaborative efforts between various ASEAN bodies. The Republic of Korea celebrated 30 years of diplomatic relations with ASEAN in 2019 and in the same year established KONNECT ASEAN, an ASEAN-Korea arts programme. Supported by the ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund and administered by the ASEAN Foundation, KONNECT ASEAN signals both an eagerness by ASEAN to revitalise its once integral role in contemporary visual arts and Korea’s sincerity in establishing closer ties with ASEAN.
The programme celebrates Southeast Asian and Korean arts using different platforms (exhibitions, education and conferences, public programmes, residencies, and publications and archives) to explore and discuss social, political, economic, and environmental issues in the region. The artists’ works and activities engages and strengthen the public’s understanding of ASEAN’s role in facilitating cultural diplomacy. Furthermore, the programme intends to connect with the three major stakeholder groups of government, business, and civil society to achieve the vision of an ASEAN Community. Outcomes provide permanent resources recording why ASEAN matters and its ongoing contribution to the region’s growth, prosperity, and stability.
NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Engineering, Business, Science, Medicine, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and Graduate colleges. NTU is also home to world-renowned autonomous institutes—the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering—and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).
Under the NTU Smart Campus vision, the University harnesses the power of digital technology and tech-enabled solutions to support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new knowledge, and the sustainability of resources. Ranked amongst the world’s top universities, the University’s main campus is also frequently listed among the world’s most beautiful. Known for its sustainability, over 95% of its building projects are certified Green Mark Platinum. Apart from its main campus, NTU also has a medical campus in Novena, Singapore’s healthcare district. For more information, visit ntu.edu.sg.
NTU CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
Situated within Singapore’s premier art precinct Gillman Barracks, NTU CCA Singapore is a pioneering institution that has been instrumental in shaping the contemporary art landscape in Singapore and beyond. With a focus on fostering creativity, innovation, and critical thinking, the Centre’s programmes have consistently challenged the status quo, encouraging artists to explore new realms of artistic expression. For more information, visit ntu.ccasingapore.org.
Image: Climate Futures #1, Jakarta (Indonesia), 2022. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore, Konnect ASEAN & ASEAN Foundation.
Since 2020, Joy Chee has been the resident bartender/gardener (or bardener, if you will) at Native, a Singaporean restaurant-bar focused on working with local and regional craftsmen and communities. Drawn to them for their ethos of sustainability and commitment to highlighting native produce, she has been working on rewilding the gardens with local kampung herbs and supporting the garden-to-table concept. When she’s not elbow-deep in compost, she can be found shaking up a cocktail or two at 52 Amoy Street.
Incorporating elements of performance in the most advanced capacities of VR technology, The Insensible Cities results from the artists’ shared interest in addressing and challenging the ideological and historical frameworks that govern one’s origins and identities. Through the sensory documentation of the multiple layers of time, memory, perception, and ideas, The Insensible Cities is a unique VR experience that reintroduces, reinterprets, and restructures the changing dimensions of everyday life in Asia beyond the conventions of cinema and performing arts.
The Insensible Cities is supported by Arts Council Korea (ARKO) and International Arts Joint Fund Korea-Singapore International Exchange Program.
Dr Ella Raidel (Austria/Singapore), is a filmmaker, artist, and researcher. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media and at the WKWSCI School of Communication and Information (both Nanyang Technological University). Her interdisciplinary practice—encompassing films, videos, and research—creates a discursive space for filmmaking, art, and research focused on the socio-cultural aspects of globalisation, urbanisation and the representation of images.
In his writings, films, and performance pieces, Dr Hyun-Suk Seo (South Korea) investigates places and senses. He is Professor at the Graduate School of Communication and Arts at Yonsei University (South Korea). His performance projects unfold in actual places as site-specific work. He often uses virtual reality technologies to construct layers of memories and experiences that question our senses and the boundaries of artworks.
Location
NTU CCA Singapore Residencies Studios
Blocks 38 Malan Road, #01-07
Singapore 109441
Date
Saturday 26 March, 2:00 – 6:00pm
Duration:
Berlin: 10 – 15 February 2022
Singapore (before and after): 4 & 18 February 2022
Application Deadline:
Friday 3 December 2021
For producers in the film and media industry, a close network and strong personal relations are one of the key factors in successful producing. The current pandemic, with its extensive travel restrictions, has reduced possibilities for physical interaction and networking, diminishing opportunities to build and nurture essential personal relations. At the same time, the film and media landscape is changing dramatically due to OTT platforms and the rapid increase of digitally mediated content consumption.
With this in mind,Close-up on Producing: Singapore – Berlin, a 5–day hands-on producers’ workshop, is set in motion to enhance personal exchange and to encourage long-lasting collaborations and partnerships between practitioners in Southeast Asia and Europe. Taking place during the 72nd Berlin Film Festival, Close-up on Producing: Singapore – Berlin will be led by Peter Rommel, one of Germany’s most prolific and successful independent producers.
This specially–crafted closed-door workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to meet and network with key people from the industry. They will be able to build new relationships, as well as deepen existing ones, for future collaborations and co-productions, and enable European–(Southeast) Asian partnerships. It is a unique and invaluable chance to learn from Rommel’s profound experience and vast network of personal contacts throughout the global media industry.
The workshop is intended for emerging Singapore-based producers working in the industry, who have produced at least one feature film and who wish to expand their networks and knowledge of producing with and in Europe. This programme will provide participants access to Rommel’s extensive production expertise and wide personal networks, as well as to 72nd Berlinale programmes.
Workshop Leaders Biographies:
Christoph Hahnheiser (Germany/Singapore) is Associate Professor Practice at NTU/ADM and CEO/founder of Black Forest Films, a production company for high-quality international features. He has produced more than 35 feature films so far and has been one of the pioneer German producers focused on international co-productions. Since starting his career with two films by Peter Greenaway his work is characterised by award-winning international productions starring actors like Daniel Craig, Tilda Swinton, Michelle Piccoli and Julie Delpy among others. Most films have participated in highly regarded international Film Festivals. Seven films alone were in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival and four in Competition of the Venice Film Festival.
Peter Rommel (Germany) after working with director Fridrik Thór Fridriksson on his Oscar-nominated feature Children of Nature Rommel founded Rommel Film to coproduce international features. Night Shapes by Andreas Dresen (Competition Berlin Film Festival) was his first inhouse production. Many further successful collaborations followed, includingthe internationally acclaimed boxoffice-hit Summer in Berlin, Cloud 9 (official selection Cannes FilmFestival, 3 German Film Awards), Stopped on Track (official selection Cannes Film Festival, 4 German Film Awards). The adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s controversial novel Wetlands, premiered at Locarno Filmfestival and was invited to Sundance Film Festival. Rommel has received the Max Ophüls Festival-Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
The workshop consists of:
• 1-day preparation session in Singapore
• 5-day networking workshop in Berlin
• Guided access to international producing networks
• Return flight Singapore – Berlin – Singapore
• 5-night accommodation Berlin
• Berlinale Festival Pass
• 1-day follow-up session Singapore
APPLICATION:
Please submit the following documents (in PDF format) via e-mail to Magdalena Magiera, ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg:
• Letter of Intent (Producer’s vision statement up to 500 words)
• List of projects in development/ production (package incl. synopsis, financing status, talent attached)
• Producer’s short CV (max 2 pages)
This professional Industry Development Programme nurtures cultural encounters and partnerships between Southeast Asia and Germany. Developed by NTU CCA Singapore and Christoph Hahnheiser and made possible with the support of the Goethe-Institut Singapore, the Embassy of the Republic of Singapore in Berlin, Germany, and School of Art Design and Media, NTU, Singapore.
NTU CCA Singapore launched its Digital Archive in April 2021 to provide access and discovery to unique digital assets, documenting its exhibitions and programmes from 2013 to March 2021.
The Centre positions itself as a space for critical discourse and encourages new ways of thinking about Spaces of the Curatorial in Southeast Asia and beyond. With the Digital Archive, we aim to provide local and international researchers, artists and curators a comprehensive database to study contemporary art ecosystems in Singapore and the region.
The Digital Archive forms part of the broader Public Resource Platform which includes a specialised print collection, Artist Resource Platform (ARP), and a video archive. The ARP looks to provide an entry point to contemporary artistic practice in Southeast Asia, containing visual material and audio recordings of talks from over 90 local artists and NTU CCA Singapore’s Artists-in-Residence. The video archive also gives insight into past public events of the Centre, offering an expanded understanding of the complexity and diversity of contemporary art research and production, and how it intersects with current developments in culture, society, and politics.
The Digital Archive is currently a work in progress with content being digitised and added progressively over time.
Click here to go directly to The Digital Archive, and please contact us for an appointment to access the Artist Resource Platform.
Kelly Reedy has worked in Singapore for over 18 years as an artist and educator. She holds a BFA in Fine Art (University of Wisconsin, 1985), MA in Education (Hunter College, 1991), MA in Art Therapy (LASALLE College of the Arts, 2017). She has exhibited her artworks internationally in Paris, Chicago, and Berlin, as well as locally at Jendela Visual Arts Space, Esplanade, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, and Alliance Fran.aise. Reedy has developed educational resources for the National Gallery Singapore and trained teachers at the National Institute of Education, specialising in visual arts education in museums and galleries.
Contemporary art is an excellent educational resource that lends itself to inquiry-based and experiential learning, and encourages creativity, self-expression, and critical thinking. By using the Centre’s past exhibitions and programmes as examples, this guide is developed to help educators explore cross-disciplinary subjects and pedagogical strategies while engaging with contemporary art.
Published by NTU CCA Singapore, 2021
Edited by Kelly Reedy in collaboration with NTU CCA Singapore
Design by mono.studio
© 2021 by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
ISBN: 978-981-14-9585-4
Distributed by NTU CCA Singapore
To purchase your copy, please contact ntuccapublications@ntu.edu.sg
Duto Hardono (b. 1985, Indonesia) is a conceptual artist and educator based in Bandung, Indonesia. Originally trained in painting, his practice traverses the two-dimensionality of collages and drawings to the dynamic incorporation of readymade materials such as everyday objects, old musical instruments, records and cassette tapes in his installations and performances. Often drawing reference from popular culture, conceptual art and anti-art movements, his works are peppered with touches of dark humour and irony in its aim to examine the relationship and paradoxes between humans and time through sound.
Hardono has participated in numerous international solo and group exhibitions including: Biennale Jogja XII Equator #2: Not A Dead End, Jogja National Museum, Indonesia (2013) and The 9th Shanghai Biennale: Reactivation, Bandung Pavilion for Intercity Pavilion, China (2012). Solo exhibitions include Klab Lucifer, Ark Gallery, Indonesia (2014) and Good Love, Bad Joke, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Indonesia (2010). He was nominated for the Asia Awards Young Creator Grand Prix, Tokyo Designers Week (2014).
Sally Tallant, presents a talk within our framework of our overarching curatorial narrative Place.Labour.Capital as her current position, Director of the Liverpool Biennial, is situated in a post-industrial port city feeling the effects of flows of global capital and an area which has historical known different routes of migration. During research Tallant will meet with a number of Singapore artists to understand their concerns and practices as well as visit institutions within Singapore to get an understanding of the arts ecosystem.
Sally Tallant (b. 1967, United Kingdom) is the Director of Liverpool Biennial ‚ The UK Biennial of International Contemporary Art. From 2001 ‚ 2011 she was Head of Programmes at the Serpentine Gallery, London where she was responsible for the development and delivery of an integrated programme of Exhibitions, Architecture, Education and Public Programmes. She has curated exhibitions in a wide range of contexts including the Hayward Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Hospitals, Schools as well as public commissions. She has developed commissioning programmes for artists in a range of contexts and developed long-term projects including The Edgware Road Project, Skills Exchange and Disassembly. She has also curated performances, sound events, film programmes and conferences. She is a regular contributor to conferences nationally and internationally. She is a Trustee of Metal, and Advisory Board Member of Open Arts Archive (Open University), a Board Member of the International Biennial Association and a member of the London Regional Council for the Arts Council of England.
The artistic practice of artist and filmmaker Hikaru Fujii (b. 1976, Japan) reflects his strong belief that art results from an intimate relationship between society and history. His work probes modern education and social systems in Japan and Asia often employing strategies of reenactment to address the contemporary relevance of historical events. He recently received a solo exhibition at KADIST, Paris, France (2019). His work has also been exhibited at Aichi Triennale, Japan (2019); Fast Forward Festival 5, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece (2018); Centre George Pompidou Metz, France (2017), and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan (2016) among others. He was awarded the Nissan Art Award 2017 Grand Prix.
Magdalena Magiera is Curator, Outreach & Education at NTU CCA Singapore. She was an independent curator, Managing Editor of frieze d/e, and currently Editor of mono.kultur, a quarterly interview magazine. She co-curated Based in Berlin (2011) as well as exhibitions for The Building and SPLACE in Berlin. Magiera was Project Manager of The Maybe Education and Other Programs at dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012), and UNITEDNATIONSPLAZA, Berlin (2006–08). Prior to joining NTU CCA Singapore, she worked for e-flux exhibitions and public programmes in New York City.
