Tag Archives: Plan International

The Apocalypse Project’s The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store on “The Art of Systems Analysis” by IIASA

September 8, 2017

“The Art of Systems Analysis”, IIASA, 2017

[Laxenburg, Austria] The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store, a perfume project about the things we could lose because of climate change, is featured on “The Art of Systems Analysis,” by the International Institute of Systems Analysis (IIASA). The document features projects from international artists and asks the question, “How can artists support transformations to sustainability?” Featured as well is a quote by one of my longtime scientist collaborators and The Apocalypse Project’s sustainability advisor, Dr. Matthias Berger.

from “The Art of Systems Analysis,” IIASA, 2017, pages 18-19

from “The Art of Systems Analysis,” IIASA, 2017

Mentioned in the article are some of the slew of residencies, workshops, talks, and exhibitions for which this particularly project has received support through the years: Singapore-ETH Future Cities Laboratory, USAID Asia, Bio-Art Seoul, Plan International (with support from BMUB Germany, International Climate Initiative, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), CCCB Lab Barcelona, 1335Mabini Manila, and my recent residency in the Amazon Rainforest with LABVERDE. Thank you for being part of the process!

I love moments like these when I can look back and thank some of the scientists who have collaborated with me. Thank you for the time and hard crits! Hope to meet you all in person one day!

Check it out here (the spread is on pages 18-19, but I encourage you to read the whole thing).

“Child’s Play: Climate Change through the Eyes of Children” at the 11th Community-Based Adaption Conference in Uganda

July 13, 2017

Art, climate change, Exhibitions, Workshops

June 26-29, 2017, Kampala, Uganda—We presented Child’s Play: Climate Change through the Eyes of Children, at the 11th Community-Based Adaptation Conference hosted by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). It was fantastic to wrap up my art residency with Plan International. I’m really grateful to have presented the works by the children from all three of my workshops in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Some of the paper architecture made by children and youth from the Future Resilient Communities workshop

The Climatoscopes, Child’s Play edition

For this edition of The Climatoscope, I didn’t do the photos—the kids did! What are places in your communities that need to adapt to climate change?

The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store! This time, the kids made their own perfumes. I reproduced them from the recipes they gave me at the end of the workshops.

Storm Globes shows kids’ sculptures of things in their communities that are vulnerable to climate change.

Deepest thanks to Kimberly Junmookda, Plan International (especially the Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines offices!), and the Federal Ministry for Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety Germany (BMUB).

Climate Change Art Workshop in Tacloban City, Philippines

May 15, 2017

Creative Learning

Tacloban City, Leyte, Philippines—Last May 6, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Tacloban City, thanks to my ongoing art residency with Plan International. Tacloban was a city that was devastated by Supertyphoon Haiyan / Yolanda in 2013. I founded The Apocalypse Project around the same time, and this city figures well in my talks.

Four years later, the city has shown amazing physical recovery. A ship that ran aground has been turned into a memorial:

Another ship that went aground

I hopped on a tricycle and paid my respects to one of the mass graves for Haiyan victims:

A mass grave in Tacloban for Haiyan / Yolanda victims

I was a bit alarmed at people who rebuilt their houses by the sea:

People rebuilt their houses by the sea

Resilience involves adaptive design. Here is a new sign that alerts for storm surges, which is a new term the residents learned, as the waves had never been that high before:

Storm surge sign

I tried to put myself in the position of people who lost their houses. Even the big ones didn’t stand a chance:

A house devastated by Haiyan

The next day was my workshop on art and climate change. I was a bit nervous—for the past years I had to encourage people to widen their imaginations on climate change events, and here I was with young people who had experienced way more than I had:

Workshop time!

We made some perfumes for The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store:

Perfume making

And made science fiction shadow puppet theater:

Shadow puppet theater workshop

perfumes

We also made sculptures for a new project I’ll be releasing in a few months:

sculpture of a tree that fell down because of the superstorm

It was the kids’ first brush with polymer clay, and it was fun toasting these in the oven.

Sculpture time! How lovely are these!

perfumes and sculptures

The kids’ favorite activity was building resilient communities using paper:

Cutting up paper infrastructure and nature for climate resilient communities!

Resilient architecture building!

It was a true honor to work with these young people. I can’t wait to turn these outcomes into a proper exhibition! Stay tuned.

Thank you to Plan International Tacloban staff and Kim Junmookda! As always, this was super fun!

Art Residency with Plan International

April 25, 2017

Art, Environment, Workshops

Indonesia—Last April 7th, I was in Lewoleba, a city in the whaling island of Lembata, Indonesia to hold an art workshop with youth courtesy of Plan International, with whom I am currently a residency artist. We did Smell Walks, drawing workshops, a competition to build a resilient country, etc. An exhibition will be held in June after I do this in two more countries, so stay tuned!