Tag Archives: The Apocalypse Project

Future Feast: July 26 at The Mind Museum

July 15, 2014

Art, Creative Learning, Design, Environment, Exhibitions, Experiments, Nature, Philippines, Science, Smell, Sustainability, Taste, Technology, Wonder

Hello, apocalypters! I’m excited to announce that as a culminating event for The Apocalypse Project: Imagined Futures, The Mind Museum is collaborating with Radio Republic to bring you Future Feast, a celebration of human creativity and our hopes for a sustainable future. The event will be on July 26, Saturday, 12PM to 7PM at the Special Exhibition Hall of The Mind Museum.

With the theme of Redesign, I am working with chefs who are creating new dishes for a Convenience Store of the Future. Radio Republic is bringing in their featured artists for July: Slow Hello, Jireh Calo, and Brisom. There will also be a performance by special guest artist Joey Ayala. This is an event for all ages, so bring in your families and get the kids to play at the Tinker Studio, watch spoken word performances and science shows, dress up in clothes from the Climate Change Closet and have your photos taken at the photo booth, smell the perfumes of The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store, participate in Mission Apocalypse Scavenger Hunt and win an Apocalypse Project Commander Badge, and think of how you can help build a sustainable future by making an Earth Pledge.

Future Feast poster by The Mind Museum, which highlights activities

Future Feast poster by Radio Republic, highlighting featured artists, special guest artist, and the chefs

Ticket prices are as follows:

EXPLORE TICKET (All Day Pass to the galleries of TMM, Access to Live Performances, Mission Apocalypse Scavenger Hunt & Climate Change Closet): 500.00 PHP

TASTE TICKET (Access to Live Performances, Future Tastes (6 dishes), and Climate Change Closet): 300.00 PHP

DISCOVER TICKET (Access to Live Performances and Climate Change Closet): 200.00 PHP

TINKER TICKET (Access to Tinker Studio: Make your own Animal Art): 150.00 PHP

You can buy tickets online here. You can also buy your tickets at the museum on the day of the event. No reservations are required.

See you there!

The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

July 9, 2014

Art, Environment, Exhibitions, Memory, Nature, Philippines, Science, Smell

1 Comment

Highlighting the vanishing breeds enchantment

I am happy to announce The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store (T.E.M.P.S., French for time), a hypothetical perfume line set in the future when many things in nature would have disappeared as we know it because of climate change. This is the first collection of eight scents.

The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store from Catherine Young on Vimeo.

Coasts
Climate change leads to rising sea levels, threatening to swallow up the world’s coastlines.

Coasts by The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

Coffee
Coffee bean production is dependent on cool mountainsides that are running out because of rising temperatures. Pests are also flourishing because of the warmer weather.

Coffee by The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

Honey
Climate change can make flowers open too early before bees emerge from hibernation, causing their numbers to decline.

Honey by The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

Wine
Climate change is altering growth conditions for grapes, leading to changes in quality of production in wine-producing regions.

Wine by The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus species are increasingly affected by drought and flash floods. Their long regeneration times and short dispersal of their seeds mean they may not be able to keep up with the pace of climate change.

Eucalyptus by The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

Peanuts
The scorching heat drastically reduces the quality of peanut production, leaving more peanuts to be processed into oil rather than the edible quality.

Peanuts by The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

Ice
Higher temperatures are causing the earth’s glaciers and permafrost to melt.

Ice by The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

Hardwood trees
Different species of trees, such as cedar, pine, and fir, are being decimated as climate change increases the risk of forest fires.

Hardwood trees by The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

To bring the project to life, I reached out to Givaudan, a Swiss flavors and fragrance company, who sources materials that preserve the environment, stimulate the development and well-being of communities, and safeguards an efficient use of previous resources. I am grateful to Marilyn Yao, Givaudan Singapore, and Givaudan Philippines for their help in the perfumes, Maribel Garcia who curated The Apocalypse Project: Imagined Futures exhibition, Stephanie Faith Bautista who designed the logo, and Nino Carandang and Peter Lorenz Frac of Shuttermaster Pro for help with photography and video.

The project was a collaboration between the perfumer who mixed the scents in the lab and myself who created the world the perfumes inhabited. Claude Charmoille, VP of Perfumery in Asia, took on this challenge. Charmoille was born in the south of France where scents abound and vary according to seasons. “After completing my botanic and chemistry education, the subtle alchemy between arts – craft – andscience attracted me to the perfumer’s profession,” says Charmoille.

Personally, my favorite scent is Coasts, because it smells of a place as opposed to the others that smell of a specific objects. Because I smell the beach, I remember my childhood memories in the beaches of the Philippines—white sand, coconut trees, the ocean breeze, salty seashells and all. For Charmoille, it’s Eucalyptus. “This one is my favourite, it brings back memories from my childhood when we visited small islands in the Mediterranean sea close to Cannes. In the hot summer days, the eucalypus and pine trees would perfume the air to a degree one can not forget, this warm aromatic and fruity whiff will always remain deeply linked to seaside vacation and family memories.”

As a designer, my intention was to show people a different side of the climate change scenario. Smell is very sensuous and visceral; its effects are instantaneous. Instead of showing statistics of what will disappear because of climate change, I decided to let people smell them. Highlighting the temporary breeds enchantment. As smell is linked to memory, I’m hoping that people will think about how their lives will be without these seemingly ordinary objects that we take for granted that might not be there anymore.

The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store

Concept and Design
Catherine Sarah Young

Perfumes
Claude Charmoille of Givaudan

Exhibition
The Mind Museum
Curator
Maria Isabel Garcia

With thanks to
Givaudan Singapore Pte Ltd c/o Claude Charmoille for providing the fragrances
Marilyn Yao and Neri Mamburam

Graphic Design
Stephanie Faith Bautista
Photography
Nino Carandang
Video and Editing
Peter Lorenz Frac of Shuttermaster Pro

Shot at Shuttermaster Pro

The Day I Ate a Steak of Worms

July 7, 2014

Environment, Exhibitions, Experiments, Philippines, Taste

It’s been a while since I’ve updated. But that’s because there’s just so much to do and too little time to blog about it. But here’s a photograph of a worm steak by two of the seven chefs I’m collaborating with for another project for The Apocalypse Project. I ate it. I ate it all! It came with weeds and mashed sweet potato.

I’m pescetarian, so this was a gray area (fish eat worms no?), but I call it Designer’s Responsibility, as I like to think of the seven-year-olds I often encounter during my projects and would like to make sure this is ok for mass consumption. Take one for the team, or for humanity.

Worms! Weeds! Waste! Oh la la!

It was more of a mental challenge, as I kept thinking of the worms and kept telling myself it was just meat. And then I remembered I’m pescetarian and don’t eat meat. It was incredibly tasty, though, and Chef Erik told me it was 82% protein.

Verdict: Green light! I can’t wait for people to try it. That’s not even the craziest part. Stay tuned here or at http://www.apocalypse.cc for what’s next.

The Design of Planetary Systems

May 24, 2014

Journal

In line with The Apocalypse Project and my future environmental / technology projects, today I doodled diagrams and lines and other things to make sense of what I did, what I’m currently doing, and what I plan to do:

doodling on a Saturday

Hmm.

The Apocalypse Project on GMA-7’s Just4Kids

May 18, 2014

Art, Creative Learning, Design, Environment, Exhibitions, Philippines

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.)

The Apocalypse Project on ABS-CBN’s Umagang Kay Ganda

May 15, 2014

Exhibitions, News

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.

Mission Apocalypse: Meet the Apocalypse Squad, Batch 2

May 2, 2014

Art, Creative Learning, Design, Environment

As part of The Apocalypse Project: Imagined Futures exhibition, questions about climate change are hidden in the exhibits of The Mind Museum. My goal was to recontextualize all of the museum—that is, after you see the Apocalypse exhibits, then visitors can see the current exhibits as representations of things that are under threat.

As I cannot be in the museum each day to handle hundreds of visitors, I am extremely happy and grateful for these people who now form the Manila crop of the Apocalypse Squad. The suits are looking really cool, you guys.

The Apocalypse Squad, Manila

In addition to facilitating the scavenger hunt, they also get to lead participants to have an oath-taking ceremony, where they pledge to help the planet. They are then awarded an Apocalypse Project Commander Badge and are knighted. With a sword, of course.

Knighting people who have won the Mission Apocalypse scavenger hunt

Many thanks to the hundreds of people who have done the Mission Apocalypse scavenger hunt. The work is just beginning for me, and I needed a few days to rest. Tune in for more developments!

Top photo by Darwin Cayetano of Tracking Treasure, used with permission.

The Apocalypse Project: Imagined Futures is now open!

April 26, 2014

Art, Creative Learning, Design, Environment, Exhibitions, Science

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!

Climate Change Couture on Metatrend Korea

March 11, 2014

News

Climate Change Couture was featured on volume 51 of Metatrend, a Korean micro-trends magazine focusing on contemporary products. It’s a membership-only magazine, but they very kindly sent me the feature. Kamsahamnida!