17 May 2014, Manila—Thanks, Cha-cha and Tara of the new Just4Kids show on GMA-7, another network here in the Philippines, for featuring The Apocalypse Project Imagined Futures at The Mind Museum.
Writing poetry at The Planetary Poetry Board
Cutest interviewers ever. (I also realized I’m way more comfortable talking with people younger than 12.)
May 14, Manila—Thanks, Atom Araullo, for featuring The Apocalypse Project on ABS-CBN’s Umagang Kay Ganda, a morning show that airs in the Philippines. The link to the episode’s recording is here, or if you’re based outside the Philippines, here at The Filipino Channel. The clip is around the 6:20AM mark, with a segment about The Mind Museum.
It’s the first Tagalog interview I’ve given in my life. You have no idea how much the museum staff are patting me on the back for this.
April 25, Taguig, Philippines—The Apocalypse Project: Imagined Futures is now open for your interactive sensory pleasure at The Mind Museum. I have five exhibits curated by the awesome Maribel Garcia, with the exhibition installation managed by Marge Arciaga, the museum’s assistant exhibition manager (and my former capoeira classmate).
Here are some quick photos of the exhibition:
The show is at the second floor, in the museum’s Technology Gallery.
The Apocalypse Project: Imagined Futures at The Mind Museum
Climate Change Couture, volume 2, Manila
Climate Change Couture: Volume 2, Manila
The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store, a collaboration with Givaudan:
The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store, a collaboration by The Apocalypse Project and Givaudan
The Planetary Poetry Board, a collaboration with poets and my friends Alena Widows and Harriet Sandilands:
The Planetary Poetry Board: a collaboration between The Apocalypse Project and poets Alena Widows and Harriet Sandilands of The Poetry Machine
More documentation as well as images coming soon! In the meantime, a huge thank you to the museum staff—this was a brutal installation because there were so many exhibits to be installed in one night after the museum’s operating hours, but this was hands down the calmest and cheeriest installation I’ve had. Thank you for the help and for being game with everything!
(22 March 2014, Manila)—Yesterday, I had a booth at The Mind Museum’s Media Day, where the museum celebrated their second birthday. In the second photo, you can see Maribel Garcia, curator of the museum, and Manny Blas, managing director of Bonifacio Foundation, Inc., speaking about their activities for the year, as well as talk about the museum’s accomplishments in the past two years, including winning the 2014 Thea Award in the Museum Exhibits category by the Themed Entertainment Association. Solar News presenter Mitzi Borromeo hosted the show. (Fun fact: She and I used to go to the same boxing class and just formally met yesterday.)
In the middle of other booths, where the museum’s Mind Movers (resident scientists and all-around awesome people) presented their own projects, I gave people a preview of the show that will open next month (NEXT MONTH! Ayayay.) I wore my Apocalypse suit, now upgraded with a Commander’s patch, and remixed some Climate Change Couture. When taking a break, I helped myself to some salted butter ice cream by Sebastian’s, and a tiramisu cup made to look like a plant by Kyle Imao of Kyle’s Lab.
The show is getting really close and I am freaking out. Only because I care.
The Apocalypse Project: Imagined Futures
This is the poster I designed for my upcoming show at The Mind Museum. If you are in Manila, please do stop by! Otherwise, all projects will be documented on the project website.
Some updates from this end of the apocalypse: I am currently working on at least five more projects under this platform. Questions I am asking are: What are disappearing because of climate change? How do we adapt? How can we train ourselves to think deeper about the future of the planet?
I am working on these while doing a self-directed art/science residency at The Mind Museum, a science museum in Manila. This location seems to be a perfect fit for me for the following reasons:
1. The Philippines is one of the top countries that are most vulnerable to climate change. Unlike Singapore, where this project began and where natural disasters are relatively rare, the Philippines often experiences extreme climate events. I think there will be a lot of opportunities for discussion and learning around this topic, and I am sure these projects will give birth to new projects.
2. The Mind Museum is one my favorite places. I never thought Manila would have anything like this—I started knocking on their doors before they were even built. I had to be based in different countries in the past several years, so I think it’s a wonderful opportunity that I have right now. I really believe that science museums are an important bastion of knowledge and inspiration for a city. The curator and the staff have also been really amazing in terms of supporting my work and giving me constructive critique.
3. A science museum will allow me to reach a lot of children, which I’ve always believed are a crucial part of my audience as an artist/designer. I think the most heartstopping questions and feedback I’ve had in the past have come from five year olds.
4. This is my home city. After living in different countries for the past decade, this is an interesting homecoming of a sort.
I hope to exhibit by late April, which isn’t too far away. At this stage, I am already excited and overworked. It’s always great to have a personal project that consumes you. Check back here for updates!
Last November 16th, I spoke on the panel, Negotiating Cities of the Future, part of the ArtScience Conversations hosted by ArtScience Museum, together with fellow artist-in-residence Michael Doherty, Shannon Lim, William Hooi, and Luther Goh. The museum was kind enough to send me photos from my part of the panel.
My talk was entitled, “The Apocalypse Playbook: Strategies for the End of the World.” I spoke about my previous work that led me to do The Apocalypse Project.
For example, I talked about the Seoul43 project. Even talking about it made me recall the exhaustion of climbing more than 43 mountains. Ha.
I also spoke about my previous sensory projects, such as The Hug Vest.
I also talked about how I came to value interactivity and experience-based design through my previous jobs and lives. As a youth correspondent at The Philippine Daily Inquirer, one of my favorite series of articles was something I called Temporarily Yours, where I took on a job for a day and wrote about it. My favorite one was about being a mascot for Jollibee, a Filipino fast-food chain. This is an 11-year newspaper clipping. In the job, I wore both suits, but for that particular photo, I was the blonde girl on the left.
Oh hi again, my Art, Science, and Design slide.
Dr. Margaret Tan, Fellow at Tembusu College and Director of Programmes, introduced us.
Denisa Kera, professor at the National University of Singapore, moderated the event.
Yep, I was wearing the Apocalypse Suit. I should wear that at all times. It’s comfy with a lot of pockets. It’s probably one of the few outfits I wouldn’t mind wearing everyday, other than a dobok.
Last November 10th, The Apocalypse Project was exhibited at the Sunday Showcase at ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands. Here are some photos of my part of the show at the Inspiration gallery:
There were five mannequins dressed Climate Change Couture, four standing projectors that introduced the parts of the project and the Mission Apocalypse game, and screen at the back that showed all the drawings made during The Apocalypse Workshops.
The Apocalypse Project – Sunday Showcase at ArtScience Museum
On the left is an interactive station where people can do The Apocalypse Workshop.
Climate Change Couture: The Trash Suit and The Bubble
The Apocalypse Project – Sunday Showcase at ArtScience Museum
It was great to see friends and strangers alike. Here’s Vinod, a Tembusu student and part of the Earth vs Humans: The Court Trial trying on the Smell Mask:
Dr. Stamatina Rassia of the Future Cities Laboratory dropped by.
And here’s Dr. Ingmar Lippert from Tembusu College.
Here’s squad member Yuen Kei Lam manning The Apocalypse Workshop. I’m so happy to see this photo—she started out being a participant in the first workshop I held, and now she’s facilitating one. Dr. Connor Graham of Tembusu College is also at the table.
I also had a photo booth where people can try on some of the Climate Change Couture clothes. On the right is squad member (and taekwondo classmate) Yerim Ku, an exchange student at the National University of Singapore.
I turned the Inspiration Gallery into a game of a sort, called Mission Apocalypse. The audience had a piece of paper with tasks on it.
The paper had 25 clues in a 5×5 grid that made them explore the gallery.
Each clue led to a question about climate change. If you get five correct answers vertically, horizontally, or diagonally (like in Bingo), you get an Apocalypse Project sticker. Or you can answer everything and get a poster.
Oh hey, here’s Professor Gregory Clancey, Master of Tembusu College (and also my neighbor):
This is one of my favorite photos. This kid was so great. He’s seven years old and working on climate change questions in Mission Apocalypse.
He also drew this superpower for The Apocalypse Workshop:
This is the happiest I’ve been in a show. You can tell—I’m grinning like a Cheshire Cat on the left and in mid-frolic.
Lastly, but most importantly, thank you, Apocalypse Squad, Batch 1. The more complex my projects get, the more I’ve learned to delegate. Thank you, all.
I’ll be putting everything about the project online here. It’s crunch time again for me (a chronic problem for chronic travelers), but it’ll all get done. The other day, I finished posting all the workshop submissions, which led to me reaching Tumblr’s posting limit for the day. I think I broke the Internet that day. Do follow that site for more updates!
Photos in this post by artist and Apocalypse Squad member Sandra Goh. Now this is exhibition photography, people. I’m taking down notes.
This weekend was the first time I exhibited The Apocalypse Project in our group showcase in ArtScience Museum. This was a stressful installation, but not quite as much as climbing more than 43 mountains, or mowing a mountain in a monsoon with a sickle. But everything went alright in the end, and I was quite happy with how it looked:
The Apocalypse Project at ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands, 10 November 2013
The Apocalypse Squad
I have learned so much from all the shows I’ve done in the past, but this is hands down my favorite one, mainly because of the team of students who made up the Apocalypse Squad. Without them, everything would have fallen apart. They worked on everything— helping to assemble the actual pieces, making each interactive station work well, and helping the audience win the Mission Apocalypse game. It was quite a production for a one-day show. I was so proud of how they worked that day—a clear indication of me getting old. Here we are, after takedown:
The Apocalypse Squad. (L-R) Sandra Goh, photographer. Yuen Kei Lam, Elaine Sam, me, Yerim Ku, Jethro Leong, Yuqi Liew, and Ingmar Salim.
Kudos as well to Tembusu students and faculty who helped me set up the installation.
More detailed photos about what went on in future posts by this week, but for now, I think I need to rest for a couple of days and get my sleeping patterns back to normal.
But in more important news:
Donate to Haiyan victims
As the world knows, Super Typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) tore through my home country, the Philippines, a few days ago. Being here in Singapore, I have been feeling very heartbroken, helpless, and distracted at seeing all the photos of the devastation. I also couldn’t help noticing the irony of exhibiting The Apocalypse Project, which I intended to make people visualize a dystopic future brought about by climate change, and actually have that apocalypse a reality in my motherland. I am not kidding—some of the things people drew for The Apocalypse Workshop became true this weekend. At the last minute, I changed one dress for Climate Change Couture as a reference to this catastrophe. (More on this in a future post.)
Thank you, Lion City, for lending the Philippines a hand.
Find out ways to help Haiyan victims here and here.
Photo by Romeo Ranoco for Reuters
This Sunday is the day! If you’re in Singapore on November 10th, come to our showcase where I’ll be exhibiting The Apocalypse Project at ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands. The following Sunday is our panel talk. More details about the events here.
Here is the showcase flyer, courtesy of ArtScience Museum:
I’m excited, and I hope so is my newly costumed Apocalypse Squad:
I feel like we’re astronauts. Hope to see you!
Catherine Sarah Young 