Nice Buenaventura (Artist, Philippines), Serina Rahman (Lecturer, NUS), “In Conversation | Islands in Flux: Weathering the Future,” Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices Symposium, 26–7 January 2024. Courtesy NTU Centre for Contemporary Art
Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific and their Potential Impact as Contribution for Transdisciplinary Research in Singapore
In recent years, climate change has triggered alarming environmental scenarios in the region. Artists and climate activists have reacted to these circumstances by proposing methods to create awareness and navigate the environmental collapse. This research project aimed to identify artistic inquiries focused on addressing environmental challenges in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. By establishing a methodology to evaluate the significance and impacts of each inquiry, it will investigate the capacity of these art projects to deepen the understanding of the effect of accelerated climate change in the aforementioned regions. This project aims to foster a dialogue between artistic forms of knowledge production and the scholarly knowledge generated by scientific practitioners engaged in climate change matters. This research project generated the Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Database, with over 100 datasets of artistic research projects that are engage in environmental challenges spanning over 20 territories, it offered a first touchpoint for researchers to engage with artists that align across similar themes. This open database, was launched at the eponymous ‘Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices’ two-day symposium that took place during Singapore Art Week. Hosted at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, this symposium brought together local and regional artists, scientists, engineers, historians and climate initiatives to discuss the potential and possibilities of transdisciplinary and cross disciplinary collaborations geared towards climate and environmental aware inquiries and solution finding.
Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Database
Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Symposium
Min, S.K. (2024). Telemetric Feeling in Tita Salina and Irwan Ahmett’s The Ring of Fire (2014–Present). Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia 8(1), 67-89.
Ute Meta Bauer is a Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU). She is currently the Acting Director and Principal Research Fellow at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore); and is the Chair of the Masters in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices (MA MSCP) programme. Having served as the Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore for over a decade, her work as educator and curator over the past years has focused on Climates. Habitats. Environments. At the Centre, she curated and co-curated The Oceanic (2017/2018), Trees of Life. Knowledge in Material (2018), and The Posthuman City (2020). In 2022, she served as curator for the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th Biennale di Venezia, featuring artist Shubigi Rao. Her recent large scale projects include the 17th Istanbul Biennial (2022), co-curated alongside David Teh and Amar Kanwar, and the artistic direction of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024. She is a Trustee of the Art Foundation TBA21 and a member of the Governing Council of n.b.k. Berlin. Bauer was recently conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Art and Design by Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland.
Soh Kay Min is currently Research Associate at the School of Art, Design, and Media, Nanyang Technological University, overseeing the research projects Climate Crisis and Cultural Loss (2021–2024), Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific (2021–2023), and Understanding Southeast Asia as a ‘Geocultural’ Formation (2021–2023. Previously, Kay Min was part of the research team at NTU CCA Singapore (2018–2021), and worked on projects that focused on the development of trans-institutional research collaborations and facilitation of transdisciplinary artistic research. Kay Min holds a BSc (Hons) in Anthropology from University College London, and MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths College, both University of London.
Angela Ricasio Hoten is a research assistant at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University supporting the research projects Climate Transformation Programme (2024–Present), Developing and Evaluating Digital Tools for Participatory Climate Change Mitigation (2025–Present) and previously the Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific (2023–2024). Angela holds a BA (Hons) in Environmental Studies and minor in Anthropology from Yale-NUS College, Singapore. She was also the undergraduate research assistant for ‘Lala Land: Singapore’s Seafood Heritage’ edited by Anthony Medrano, published by Epigram Books.
