Here are some sneak peeks into the things I am working on for this residency.
I am reaching that point when my projects are deemed too crazy by people that I have to be the one to model it. The first photo is by the lovely Cheryl Song of the Singapore-ETH Future Cities Laboratory, who has patiently put up with me.
Follow the project site at http://www.apocalypse.cc.
This week, I and my fellow artist-in-residence Michael spoke in Tembusu College’s Singapore as Model City class.
It looks like I’m singing, but I’m not. I was just saying hi and asking if they could hear me. Thanks, Dr. Margaret Tan, for the photo.
I think I like it when the stage design is reversed and I’m looking up.
I won’t elaborate on parts of my talk that I’ve posted before, such as what happened during The Apocalypse Workshops or the comments on DrawHappy that made me rethink what the project could be about. So instead, I’ll emphasize some of the things I learned about experience design and collaborations between art and science.
Experience and memory
The image my have the last word, but for me, experience is the one that stay with you forever. I referred to a series of articles I wrote when I was a young journalist, oh so many years ago. This is a photo of me when I was 19 years old:
In this photo, I was wearing the costume on the left, although I also wore the one on the right. These are mascots from Jollibee, a Filipino fast food chain that, for me, is one of the icons of modern Filipino culture and taste. It was for a series of articles called Temporarily Yours, where I took on a job for a day and then wrote about it. Looking back, these are exercises in empathy, albeit short ones, where I realized how it was to be on the other side of the fence. Most of these jobs were in food or customer service, such as a barista or a sushi chef. Others were about performance, such as a magician’s assistant or a zookeeper. In this particular article, I wrote about how it was to be a mascot and embody a character beloved by children. I still vividly remember these experiences more than a decade later, such as how the head of Hetty (the female character, short for “spaghetti”) was so big and difficult to balance, and how Jollibee’s butt was so huge, it took two guys to shove me through a door. You know, good times.
Projects like these have shaped my views on how I execute future projects. Though I don’t feel that my work fits just one area of inquiry, I think that the common thread between all of them is that of experience. Experience is very powerful. The image may have the last word, but in a world where we are saturated by images, I believe that experience makes these images last longer and gives them more meaning.
Korea and Experience Booths
My views on experience design have also been honed through seeing South Korea’s experience booths in festivals, which will always mark my memories of that country. In festivals in the US or in Europe, I would usually find people selling me a finished product, let’s say a ceramic pot. But in Korea, I will be sold the experience of making or painting my own pot. In this case, I will find myself sitting down at the booth and getting messy at the table, thus slowing down, making my experience more personal, and hopefully have a longer lasting memory than just having the generic festival experience. Perhaps I will end up treasuring the pot I made myself rather than just another cheap souvenir. I also think these booths give wonderful creative opportunities for families, children, and the elderly.
A Korean experience booth on printmaking
Korea can get quite creative with their experience booths, such as this one I saw down south in Hampyeong.
I believe that the role of artists / scientists / designers is not just to have these unique experiences through their work, but to share these with others. Typically, we share that experience by writing about it for others to read. Through that reading, perhaps someone will profoundly connect with our writing. However, I think that human bonds can be stronger through a shared experience. Your audience can create their own experiences for themselves and yield results that are unexpected, like what I’ve learned from previous projects. This is when you realize that your audience teach you something as well, which is a wonderful thing. Projects become a conversation between creator and audience, which will only serve to fuel human creativity and progress.
Art, Science, and Sustainability
Personally, I believe that the wealth of human knowledge is too vast to just break down into two, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s go with these two fields: art and science. As I have been trained in both, I have felt what it was like on each “side”. I have been “the scientist” in an art/design studio, and “the artist” in a science lab. Both types of experiences have been very unique to me. Both sides have their own ivory towers. Those who choose to be in those towers, I think, should quickly parachute off. Our world is too vast and our problems too complex for petty squabbling. Unexpected things can happen when ideas from each side, as they say, have sex. Here is a nice comic by Bird and Moon that shows that.
Image copyright by Bird and Moon
Collaboration is especially important in the realm of sustainability, which is a world I did not expect to enter. It’s quite a booming area, especially in Singapore. Everyone and your mother is doing sustainability.* (That, and “cities” and “resilience.”) I referred (again) to this Ngram by xkcd.
*Did I really say that in a university class? Yes, I did.
Image copyright by xkcd
Instead of being a part of the echo chamber that such “trending” fields create, perhaps new solutions can emerge by letting disciplines hang out together, as they used to do, way back when.
In the end, I emphasized empathy to these bright eyed young students who are in the middle of creating sustainable urban interventions for their class. I said this as someone from the Philippines, a developing country. I cannot tell you how many international consultants in there right now, wanting to save it from XYZ problems. Now, I am very grateful that these brilliant people are there, and I am sure they have great intentions. Certainly foreigners can see opportunities locals may have overlooked, as I have had, being a foreigner in four other countries. But I’ve seen enough projects that never get implemented or never have their full potential realized because of these gaps in empathy. I believe we can do better.
Last weekend, I visited Singapore’s army market to pick up some things for prototyping. I usually go to dollar stores or markets to buy cheap readymade objects that I can potentially hack into, but this is the first time I’ve visited a market that specializes in military gear. Of all the fields I’ve looked into, the military is the one that uses wearables in potential apocalyptic scenarios I am looking at.
These patches give me ideas.
I bought a pair of goggles, a head mask, and a face mask. I’m trying to see how the design of each can possibly fit into one of my projects.
This design space is fun. A bit scary, but fun.
This morning, just for kicks, I decided to do an n-gram analysis of the main words I encounter or use in my project: climate change, global warming, apocalypse, sustainability, and resilience using Google Books Ngram Viewer. Here is a screenshot:
I think the conclusions I can make that are useful to my project are:
1. “Climate change” is more often used than “global warming.”
2. “Apocalypse” is pretty much used with the same frequency as before. (I guess that’s a great thing for this project?)
3. We’ve been using “sustainability” a lot. I’ve deliberately avoided using this word unless I absolutely had to, because, well, I feel that it’s overused to the point that it’s losing its meaning to me. This reminds me of this graph by xkcd:
Image copyright by xkcd
(Original version here.)
I’m a bit sad that this tool only gives me results until 2008. But anyhow, that was an enlightening break before another day of designing, picking typefaces, and writing art/design statements.
Perhaps as a welcome to living this near to the equator, I contracted a tropical bacterial infection during my first month in Singapore. This resulted to three weeks of congestion and mucus. There were a lot of very embarrassing social situations and a consistent need for tissues. But the most awful thing about it was the fact that I lost my sense of smell. This is absolutely catastrophic for someone who studies perception. For one who once tested the link between smell and memories. For one who made an olfactory memoir. For one who can tell cities apart by smells.
The medical term for this is anosmia. (Check this video and article on NYTimes.com for people who permanently lost their sense of smell or were born without it.)
If anything, I am grateful it only lasted a few weeks. There is nothing like valuing something more when you’ve temporarily lost it. To make it a learning experience, I pretended my anosmia was an experiment.
So, how was life without my sense of smell?
The smallest activities were voided of their pleasures. I could not smell the mint on my toothpaste, the citrus crispness of a sliced lemon, the aroma of coffee, the freshness of new bedsheets. Perfume, which was a daily habit and a mood booster, became unnecessary. Each object blurred into the next, unclearly defined.
Without smell, I was unable to detect the orange juice spilling on the opaque countertop. I could not gauge the weather, because I could no longer the smell rain or heat through the window. My days lost a dimension—like the difference between experiencing a movie on a bad screen and in HD. Life became very dull; a mere shadow of its former self. It was then that I realized that in many ways, we can smell movement, and therefore stories. Smell made things more real.
Our senses of smell and taste are related. And so without smell, I couldn’t taste anything either, apart from being able to determine if a dish was sweet, sour, salty or bitter, more or less. This robbed me of the joys of eating. I ate a lot of spicy food, mainly to clear my congested sinuses and because most of the time, spiciness that was the only thing that registered.
On a less depressing note, I learned to better appreciate the texture of food. And because I could not taste anything, I stopped eating food that was unhealthy. I don’t recall a time in my life when I ate less chocolate. Or drank less coffee. Because really, what was the point? I may have lost a couple of pounds, but I was unhappy.
There were other minor benefits, I suppose. The delight and wonder of things faded, but so did their disagreeableness. I thought it was great not to be able to smell smoke or public toilets. In the gym, in taekwondo class, in crowded subways, I could not be offended by body odor. Hurray!
However, not being able to smell noxious substances is dangerous. It is what tells us if there is a gas leak or if our food has spoiled. And another problem with not smelling is that while nothing and no one stinks, you don’t know if you do.
Eventually, as my colleagues told me that my cold was probably an infection, I went to the doctor and was prescribed a dose of antibiotics. As the medicine kicked in and I became better, my sense of smell started to come in short spurts, probably analogous to a blind person seeing flashes of light. Whoa, that basket of fruit actually registered. Oh my, cornflakes tasted like cornflakes. I can smell my shampoo again.
Having my sense of smell come back to me was like getting out of a bubble. I realized that like smell made me a part of my environment because I could breathe it into myself and establish a continuity with the world. Slowly, I felt more alive. I had never been so overjoyed to smell garbage again.
P.S. Huge thanks to the awesome staff of the University Health Center of the National University of Singapore, who took me in past closing time last Friday when they realized I was close to passing out. Kudos!
For the final part of The Apocalypse Workshop, I asked the participants, “What would you wear to the apocalypse?” and to define each wearable they design. I gave them fashion design templates. Here is the Tembusu version of an Apocalypse Lookbook:
by Adeline Chang
by Amanda Tan
by Arjun Saha
by Au Yong Shi Ya
by Carmina Castro
by Cassandra Teo
by Chan Sze How
by Cherlyn Tan
by Georgia Tam
by Germaine Goh
by Jared Koh
by Jonathan T
by Lam Yuen Kei
by Lee Ying Lin
by Lycia Ho
by Naomi Neoh
by Rachel Lee
by Sarah Lim
by Sonja Chua
by Tay Ying Ying
by Victoria Er
by Zoe Bezpalko
by Zoe Bezpalko
For the second part of The Apocalypse Workshop, I asked students to imagine their superpowers to navigate through the apocalypse they described in the beginning.
Here are some sketches:
“Fly. Heal. Escape.” —Adeline Chang
“Ability to move the sun” —Amanda Tan Ying Shyuan
“Spaceship out to sun to cool it. Suicidal ice core cooler.”—Arjun Saha
“I wish I will have the power to breathe life into the world again.” —Au Yong Shi Ya
“In the case of singularity, no one really knows what’s gonna happen, but it’s likely that people will be even more interconnected than before. e.g. chips planted inside head / linked to the brain. In this case, a helm of mind-control protector might help in preventing subliminal advances to your head space / just outright mind-jacking.
“I would teleport to the mountains, the wilderness, the forests, something of the like. The place can simply transform with a snap.” —Cassandra Teo
“This drawing shows a Superman shooting down CO2 gas molecules to reduce greenhouse warming. He is flying and protecting the atmosphere of the Earth.” —Chan Sze How
“Nose with CO2 to O2 converting nose-hair / cells. Whatever by-product will be used to “recharge” the converting mechanism. Eyes that can see temperature differences in color, that can function like binoculars to see danger from afar. Mouth that has glands that secrete substances to purify contaminated water and food.” —Cherlyn Tan
“The Day After Tomorrow Apocalypse: 1. Engulfed by water 2. World freezes over. 3. We wait for Jake Gyllenhaal to save us all.” —Georgia Tam
“I will have the power to be invisible when I go out so that the heat / temperature will not be a problem! I will have the healing power to “heal” anything that comes my way, to have the strength to carry animals, people to safety. Magic wand: I will have the magic power to make plants and trees grow beautifully by having a protective shield to prevent excessive sun rays. Plants will flourish.” —Germaine Goh
“Neo-Atlantis human.” —Jared Koh
“Our skin will be able to dissipate heat and moisture so that we can cope with the increased heat and humidity. To combat bad swampy smells out skin will naturally emit happy smells.” —Jonathan T
“As humans attack humans out of desperation from the apocalypse scenario of climate change, out of need for survival, food and shelter, it is time for the power of isolation to set in.” —Lam Yuen Kei
“An invisible sphere that can be activated with the click of a button. Being invisible, it will not block out the scenery but at the same time it can create a micro-climate in which people can control the temperature. It is like a force field that don’t need to be carried when you move.” —Lee Ying Lin
“This device can suck in an infinite amount of carbon dioxide / greenhouse gases.”—Lycia Ho
“…I think having the power to control the weather from now until the future might be of use. Perhaps I will be able to alleviate the harmful effects of global warming and reduce its negative impact on the Earth’s physical (natural?) atmosphere. Alternatively, with my ability to control the weather, I suppose I could put a stop to global warming entirely? Send thunderbolts to blast factories emitting carbon into oblivion, showers of rain to rejuvenate the plants and the rainforests, more rain to ease droughts and nourish infertile lands … bring the sun out to make the plants grow… Perhaps weather control is not necessarily the ultimate solution to preventing a future like the one I have imagined, but it can be a start. Bring on the superpower abilities!” —Rachel Lee
Sarah Lim
Sonja Chua
“A Rain Man. A Nature Recovery Wand.” —Tay Ying Ying
“Protective Impenetrable Bubble.”—Victoria Er
“Dots-connection deviece. It’s all about changing mindsets of development.” —Zoe Bezpalko
The Apocalypse Workshops that I held last week at Tembusu College, National University of Singapore yielded some very interesting results as to how young people view climate change nowadays. For this part, I asked them to pick a favorite place and describe in great detail how climate change will affect it 50 years hence.
Below are some results. Check out the future site of The Apocalypse Project here.
Adeline Chang:
One of my current favourite places to be in the open air lift lobby in the Tembusu College building —on the 14th level. I go there at night, when I need to peace out or think or feel the coldness of the wind against my body. In the darkness all I can see are the faint outlines of treetops, and twinkling out of them are lights —staring eyes and the corners of a generous, comforting smile that engulfs me and my troubles. The lights of the buildings shine in the distance far, far behind the trees, and the air is fresh and cold. At half past 2 in the morning, there isn’t a soul around me, and calm falls over me like the softest blanket as the automatic corridor lighting clicks off. I breathe deep once, then once more.
50 years later I sneak back to that spot, my spot, on the 14th floor. I gaze out at the phantoms of trees past; my eyes glitter with the barest trace of tears. My mind runs free and in ecstasy, conjuring up the face that has kept me company through nights of intimate conversations, cup noodles, somber inner ramblings, the pure bliss of wind, sensation and being alive. But there are only glass towers now, beautiful and cold and hard and ugly and out of place. The wind I loved so is no more, it is warm today, too warm. As my eyes blur it becomes easier to pretend it is tears that shroud my vision—and not the haze of change.
Amanda Tan Ying Shyuan:
Place: ocean
Climate problem: full-blown freezing of the top of the ocean waters
Arjun Saha:
Mt. Faber view point
Sunspots superheated
Au Yong Shi Ya:
Botanical Gardens Pavilion in the midst of fallen leaves and dead trees
Carmina Castro:
My favorite place: Headspace > change drastically > Climate change pushes technological developments
50 years from now > 2063 > Projected year around which “singularity” will occur: 2040 > Post-singularity: no one knows, but logical that robots / humans with robot brains would use crazy advanced technology to solve climate change > People become more rational beings > Solve human problems which are barriers to climate change > Technology evolves exponentially
Greatest change that could occur is inside head.
Human apocalypse? since moving to post-human.
Cassandra Teo:
2063 view:
Evening, it is warm. The wind is hotter, the sunlight shines through dust. This will be the view outside Tembusu, if it still will be there.
Chan Sze How:
This image is a location in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. 50 years on, with changing climatic conditions, poor harvests (characterised by the black outlines on the slopes of the mountains) and the abandoned town is obsessed. This place relies heavily on subsistence farming which explains why the place is abandoned due to poor crop yield.
Cherlyn Tan:
This is the rough layout of my home. I live in a HDB flat on the 20th storey in the Eastern part of Singapore. I love my home. Being on the 20th floor means that I get to enjoy the nice breeze and a bird’s eye view of everything—when I look out of the window in my room, I see the sea and the many ships and vessels of all shapes and sizes. I see aeroplanes preparing to land (my home is near Changi Airport), I see part of the MRT track and the good old (most-of-the-time trustworthy) train moving along, and I see cars, all sorts, and hear them, too.
In 50 years, if climate change has revealed its tipping point, I imagine that the heat will be unbearable. So unbearable that the air-conditioning would have to be left on 24/7 (leaving us with the guilt that we may be making things worse, but yet not knowing how else to cope with the heat). The air will be heavy with the smell of burnt and melting rubber and plastic as a result of [increase] in UV rays reaching the Earth’s surface. Aeroplanes carrying tourists will be replaced with government aircrafts to distribute supplies and monitor environmental conditions.
Georgia Tam:
Oxford
Germaine Goh:
In 50 years, I imagine my house to be my little safe haven, whereby life will be unbearable without aircon (as see by the increase in number of air-conditioner present). Furthermore, my plants will have to be indoor plants for the heat will be unbearable under the hot sun. Trees will not survive (fallen leaves) and the land will be bare (no plants can grow) in the garden outside my house. My safe haven will have my piano still. 🙂
Jared Koh:
Neo-Atlantis
Jonathan T:
This is what used to be my favorite field. They are building a car park on it already. In fifty years it’ll be hot and swampy. Mangroves and moss will grow where there is grass and flowers. There will be lots of flies. Because the field is surrounded by residences, people will still have to commute through future-swamp. So they will build a stilt walkway through it. The monsoon drain next to the swamp will be perpetually full. Strange and smelly things will grow in there.
Lam Yuen Kei:
Location: The High Court where justice is meted out for perpetuators of climate change
[Shown: people who are hanged for stealing water]
Lee Ying Lin:
50 years later… I’m imagining how it would be like in my dream retirement farm. In my imagination, climate change will make the summers in Australia even warmer than now, but maybe the effects would change it into a tropical climate, that is evergreen throughout the year. Picnics, horse-riding can still carry on.
Lycia Ho:
This is a horrible picture of a window seat on the airplane. It’s my favourite place in the world because of the way it makes me feel, a reminder that I am but a tiny speck in the vast unknown. In 50 years’ time there may possibly be whiter clouds, given the progress of geoengineering. Somehow, I imagine the skies to be darker, perhaps more rain. I won’t see clearly because of the haze but I imagine myself still feeling excited about travel. In 50 years’ time there will still be too much of the world I need to see, but with climate change there will also be places that will be gone forever.
Rachel Lee:
One of my favourite places is the rooftop garden at Orchard Central. It is especially magical at night, when the greenery is a deep dark green and the silhouettes of the water lilies are reflected in the fish pond. THere are lanterns switched on sometimes, and their warm glow battles the garden, creating a mystical and almost fairytale-like atmosphere.
In 50 year’s time, I imagine that the garden will no longer be an open-air one. The effects of global warming might have led the management to encase the garden in a plastic bubble, a greenhouse of sorts, to keep out unwanted UV rays, etc. The atmosphere in the garden will thus be a very sterilized one, lacking fresh air and the cool night breeze that I have come to love about it. I believe that it will be vastly different staring out at the vast expanse of the midnight-blue sky through a layer of plastic, compared to the unobstructed view that I enjoy now. The artificiality and the feeling of being in a controlled environment where nature is even more domesticated than it is now (the garden is currently man0made in itself) will be rather off-putting, and I fear that the mystical allure of the garden will be lost forever.
Sarah Lim Shu Hui
Sonja Chua:
Images and sounds:
– Children consistently coughing due to persistent asthma attacks > must be the air
-The elderly have their eyes constantly watering due to the dust.
– Sound of the air purifier and air conditioning (not that helps).Smells:
– Air is more polluted that it was.
– Finally able to get salmon after so long because of shortages of salmon and sky rocket prices.Touch:
– Furniture full of dust from pollutants
– Unbearable heat in the day
– Global warmingTaste:
– Water seems a bit more sour than normal > must be the acid rain.
– Food doesn’t taste that nice anymore > probably because of the pollutants.
Tay Ying Ying:
The Death of Nature
Victoria Er:
Betws-y-Coed, Wales, is my favorite place on earth because it is so scenic, nature there is so untouched, the air is always clean and fresh, and the people are so kind and loving. I remember meeting two strangers in Wales who were so generous to me, giving me lunch and sharing with me about their lives so openly. These two people are Father Damien and Dylan.
In 50 years, as climate change affects it, the mountains can perhaps not be visible due to haze. The air would be either too cold or too hot. There may not as as many trees and plantations and it would be a ruined place. Could I get back to Betws-y-Coed and it’s neighboring village Llanrwst? Maybe not. There may not be any more nature as we know it now! And it saddens my heart to think that Dylan will no longer be able to take those lovely walks up in the mountains with his dogs, in the very mountains which he calls home, in which is finds his refuge and strength.
What about the lovely Swallow Falls? Will there still be the lovely sounds and peaceful calm of water falling onto the bed of rocks? Or would it flood or dry up?
And the beautiful blue skies will be grey and perhaps never see the light of the beautiful sun.
Zoe Bezpalko, environmental engineer:
Papassus, my grandparents’ farm, southwest of France
In Papassus, the climate change already affected the environment, the seasons don’t change, spring and autumn disappeared. Animals like glow-in-the-dark worms disappear whereas some developed and spread like rats and cats. With climate catastrophes, I see poverty coming. I image the energy demands raining so much that pipe lines will be built everywhere and people will chop down the forest. Biodiversity of trees, animals and landscape will change to be a very monotonous view. We will have only one type of agriculture. Robots will take out all jobs forcing people to live in poverty and trying to survive in an artificial world. Very rich people will be locked down in fake paradises with no notion of local, sustainable resources, always demanding more.
Every single “virgin” natural place will be polluted by wastes. At my grandparents’ place a community of optimistic people decided to settle down and live in an autonomous society.
This week, I got two groups of students from Tembusu College here at the National University of Singapore, to voluntarily participate in my Apocalypse Workshop. The goal was for them to imagine a climate change apocalypse.
The first activity was called My Apocalypse. These were my instructions:
Name and describe your favorite place in 50 years as climate change affects it. (Write about it and draw it.) This could be a city landmark, the family farm, your apartment building, your favorite cafe, or any other place you feel like speculating on. Please be as specific as possible. Scenarios can be positive or negative. (Some questions to ponder, but please don’t limit yourself to these: What does it smell like? What plants and/or animals are present, if any? How hot or cold will it be when you are sitting there? How will you get there? Can you see clearly? Will your pet be happy living there? What is the color you see when you look up? Are there walls, and what are they made of?)
I asked them to name the actual place (and not just write, “the world” or “the city”) because I wanted them to be as specific and detailed as possible. The participants were also more likely to choose different places and thus provide a wider range of descriptions.
The second activity was called Superpowers for the End of the World. These were the details:
If you had a superpower to navigate through what you described in Activity 1, what would it be?
Examples of superpowers can be the ability to: smell an incoming tsunami, be invisible to animals, turn into ice during a heatwave, or anything that your current senses and abilities can’t let you do right now. It can be an extension of your biological abilities, or a device that performs it. You can list more than one superpower.
I wanted to frame it in this way so that people will find it more fun and exciting and really think outside the box when it comes to climate change. Nothing like superpowers to get the creative juices flowing!
The last activity was called The Apocalypse Lookbook, where I gave them fashion design templates:
What will you wear to the apocalypse? Use the templates provided. Define the function of each wearable.
I let them do each activity for twenty minutes, and afterwards, they shared what they made to the group. These university students all had taken a class on climate change, or were in the middle of one. They came from business, economics, engineering, and communication majors. I also had one participant who is a professional environmental engineer.
Here are some photos from the sessions:
I’ve given lots of workshops in the past few years—this definitely yielded among the most imaginative results. I’ll be sharing those soon. Thanks to all the participants, and also to those from all over the world who sent their answers online!
The first few weeks in Singapore, apart from battling a tropical superflu, one other war I was waging was contextualizing climate change in a way that was, well, less boring for people.
Put it this way, during the beginning of this residency, I was reading up on UN documents on the environment and we all know how enjoyable that is. I was beginning to be afraid that this project will be the most boring one I’ve ever done. When finally, it hit me.
Climate change has a branding problem. Not that I didn’t think so before, but it’s different when you are doing a project that is supposed to get people to want to act on climate change. My initial responses for my project were, well, meh. I felt like people were humoring me because I was a guest in their lab / college / country. I don’t blame them. People think climate change is too dry and inaccessible. Or more precisely, I believe it is seen as something separate from other concerns, when I think environmental “mindfulness” should be integrated in our lifestyles.
When I see climate change campaigns in schools and organizations, it’s mostly about recycling. Don’t get me wrong—recycling is important and we all should do it. I just don’t think that it is the cure-all for all our environmental woes. Climate change-related events are getting bigger and more serious—it’s critical to think beyond our current solutions.
Another field having a branding problem with respect to climate change is art. I think for the most part, people see it as frivolous. “Oh that’s nice,” but thinking “but let the important people do the important work” type of attitude. Again, I don’t blame them. The ivory towers and walls that distance disciplines from each other have served to alienate. (I also think that this is a one of the causes of professional burn-out, but that’s another post for another day.)
I need to get people in a state of “play” so that they will think outside the box. Hence the formation of this Apocalypse Project. It’s tricky to turn something as serious as climate change as something “fun,” but I believe that making it so will get people to start thinking beyond the box. Dystopias and apocalypses pave the way for that. We already have these ingrained in literature and pop culture. But beyond that, ideas that seemed crazy in the beginning sometimes become the best solutions. Science fiction becomes speculative fiction and eventually reality, doesn’t it? As an example, just check out this TED talk by Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu on manipulated memories.
Stay tuned for the next post on The Apocalypse Workshop, when the very creative minds of students here at NUS’ Tembusu college take a stab at thinking about a climate change apocalypse.
Catherine Sarah Young 