The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu – Who Owns the Ocean? marks the culmination of TBA21–Academy The Current’s first cycle of expeditions, bringing together The Current Fellows; thought leaders from diverse disciplines; local agencies and activist NGOs. Through discursive events including talanoa discussions, case studies, workshops, provocations, as well as performative events, Convening #3 shares with a wider public the research and challenges generated through the format of such expeditions. It focuses on the modalities of exchange, addresses environmental urgencies, raises questions regarding responsibilities and ownership, and discusses whether rights of nature can be equal to human rights. Environmental researchers, conservationists, anthropologists, and policymakers will share a platform that invites active and creative participation on how we can understand and effect the development to international law, policies, culture, and environmental education.
Coinciding with NTU CCA Singapore’s current exhibition The Oceanic, featuring contributions by TBA21–Academy The Current Fellows from the first cycle of expeditions (2015–17), Convening #3 marks the culmination of inquiries on the vessel Dardanella to the Pacific archipelagos of Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea; the Tuamotus in French Polynesia; and the Lau Island Group in Fiji.
The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu – Who Owns the Ocean? has been conceived by Markus Reymann, Director of TBA21–Academy; Stefanie Hessler, Curator of TBA21–Academy; and Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore, and expedition leader of The Current’s first cycle.
Previous Convenings in the first cycle of The Current:
Convening #1 The Kula Ring in Kingston, Jamaica (16 – 17 March 2016)
Convening #2 Tuamotus, Distant Islands in Kochi, Kerala, India (13 – 15 December 2016)
Thursday, 25 January
[Closed talanoa sessions]
++
Friday, 26 January, 1.30 – 10.00pm
*Venue: The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
1.30pm
Introduction
1.45pm
Case Study by Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji), Special Advisor, Pacific Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23 Presidency Secretariat of the Fijian government
2.15pm
Case Study by Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe (French Polynesia), Law Department, University of French Polynesia
2.45pm
Short Provocations
Atif Akin (Turkey/United States), artist, designer, and Associate Professor, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, United States
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba (Fiji), High Chief of the Yasayasamoala Island group
Andrew Foran (Australia/Fiji), Head, Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Fiji
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany), photographer and filmmaker
Maureen Penjueli (Fiji), Coordinator, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
Valérie Portefaix (France/Hong Kong), Director, MAP Office
Joey Tau (Fiji), media and campaign officer, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka, Canada/Singapore), architect, artist, and NTU ADM/CCA Singapore PhD candidate
*Venue: Outside Block 43 Malan Road
6.20pm
Welcome Addresses
Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore
Markus Reymann, Director, TBA21–Academy
Professor Alan Chan, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University
Guest-of-Honour: Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources of Singapore
7.00pm
Public Reception
*Venue: The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
8.00pm
Place.Labour.Capital Publication Launch and Reception
Published by NTU CCA Singapore and Mousse Publishing
*Venue: Outside Block 43 Malan Road
9.00–10.00pm
I/E – the solo sessions
Sound Performance by Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France), musician, composer, and sound artist
Tarek Atoui’s ongoing project I/E consists of recordings at major ports and harbours all over the world. Since 2015, the artist has recorded the activities, waters, and surroundings at Elefsina in Greece and the Mina Zayed port in Abu Dhabi.
For Atoui’s performance as part of The Current Convening #3, each of these recordings will serve as a sound capsule that functions similar to a multi-channel playback machine as well as a small modular synthesiser. Using specific instruments built by the artist, Atoui will be playing with the sounds of these locations and morphing them with other electro-acoustic devices.
The sounds used in I/E – the solo sessions will be augmented with recordings from Singapore’s waterfront and added to Atoui’s solo presentation at NTU CCA Singapore in March 2018 to create one of the main layers of the exhibition.
++
Saturday, 27 January, 11.00am – 6.00pm
*Venue: Outside Block 43 Malan Road
11.00am
Discursive Brunch 70 x 7 The Meal Act XLI (41) by Lucy + Jorge Orta (United Kingdom/France, Argentina/France) and restaurateur Ken Loon (Singapore), The Naked Finn
Lucy + Jorge Orta’s discursive brunch draws from the tradition of communal eating to create a platform that explores questions relating to the ocean, such as the entitlements of resources, its waters, food security, as well as ownership of oceanic practices, materials, and images.
This special meal is developed in collaboration with restaurateur Ken Loon of Singapore’s The Naked Finn, who has locally sourced the ingredients, each of which will be explained and related back to the wider conversation of Singapore’s food sources, its specific environment and infrastructure.
*Venue: The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
2.00pm
Introduction
2.15pm
Case Study by Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka’uta (Fiji), Director, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific Heritage Hub, UNESCO Faculty of Arts, Law and Education, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji
2.45pm
Case Study by Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United States), Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Iowa, United States
3.15pm
Short Provocations
Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/United States), artist
Barney Broomfield (United Kingdom/United States), filmmaker
Dr Guigone Camus (France), anthropologist
Newell Harry (Australia), artist
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore), media artist, and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore), composer, sound artist, and researcher
Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam), artist
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom), art writer, curator, and Editor-in-Chief, art-agenda
Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany), artist and filmmaker
SUPERFLEX (Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger, and Rasmus Nielsen) (Denmark), artists
5.15pm
Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic Worldview through Art and Science Publication Launch and Reception
Published by MIT Press and TBA21–Academy
The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu – Who Owns the Ocean? marks the culmination of TBA21–Academy The Current’s first cycle of expeditions, bringing together The Current Fellows; thought leaders from diverse disciplines; local agencies and activist NGOs. Through discursive events including talanoa discussions, case studies, workshops, provocations, as well as performative events, Convening #3 shares with a wider public the research and challenges generated through the format of such expeditions. It focuses on the modalities of exchange, addresses environmental urgencies, raises questions regarding responsibilities and ownership, and discusses whether rights of nature can be equal to human rights. Environmental researchers, conservationists, anthropologists, and policymakers will share a platform that invites active and creative participation on how we can understand and effect the development to international law, policies, culture, and environmental education.
Coinciding with NTU CCA Singapore’s current exhibition The Oceanic, featuring contributions by TBA21–Academy The Current Fellows from the first cycle of expeditions (2015–17), Convening #3 marks the culmination of inquiries on the vessel Dardanella to the Pacific archipelagos of Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea; the Tuamotus in French Polynesia; and the Lau Island Group in Fiji.
The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu – Who Owns the Ocean? has been conceived by Markus Reymann, Director of TBA21–Academy; Stefanie Hessler, Curator of TBA21–Academy; and Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore, and expedition leader of The Current’s first cycle.
Previous Convenings in the first cycle of The Current:
Convening #1 The Kula Ring in Kingston, Jamaica (16 – 17 March 2016)
Convening #2 Tuamotus, Distant Islands in Kochi, Kerala, India (13 – 15 December 2016)
Thursday, 25 January
[Closed talanoa sessions]
++
Friday, 26 January, 1.30 – 10.00pm
*Venue: The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
1.30pm
Introduction
1.45pm
Case Study by Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji), Special Advisor, Pacific Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23 Presidency Secretariat of the Fijian government
2.15pm
Case Study by Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe (French Polynesia), Law Department, University of French Polynesia
2.45pm
Short Provocations
Atif Akin (Turkey/United States), artist, designer, and Associate Professor, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, United States
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba (Fiji), High Chief of the Yasayasamoala Island group
Andrew Foran (Australia/Fiji), Head, Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Fiji
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany), photographer and filmmaker
Maureen Penjueli (Fiji), Coordinator, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
Valérie Portefaix (France/Hong Kong), Director, MAP Office
Joey Tau (Fiji), media and campaign officer, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka, Canada/Singapore), architect, artist, and NTU ADM/CCA Singapore PhD candidate
*Venue: Outside Block 43 Malan Road
6.20pm
Welcome Addresses
Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore
Markus Reymann, Director, TBA21–Academy
Professor Alan Chan, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University
Guest-of-Honour: Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources of Singapore
7.00pm
Public Reception
*Venue: The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
8.00pm
Place.Labour.Capital Publication Launch and Reception
Published by NTU CCA Singapore and Mousse Publishing
*Venue: Outside Block 43 Malan Road
9.00–10.00pm
I/E – the solo sessions
Sound Performance by Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France), musician, composer, and sound artist
Tarek Atoui’s ongoing project I/E consists of recordings at major ports and harbours all over the world. Since 2015, the artist has recorded the activities, waters, and surroundings at Elefsina in Greece and the Mina Zayed port in Abu Dhabi.
For Atoui’s performance as part of The Current Convening #3, each of these recordings will serve as a sound capsule that functions similar to a multi-channel playback machine as well as a small modular synthesiser. Using specific instruments built by the artist, Atoui will be playing with the sounds of these locations and morphing them with other electro-acoustic devices.
The sounds used in I/E – the solo sessions will be augmented with recordings from Singapore’s waterfront and added to Atoui’s solo presentation at NTU CCA Singapore in March 2018 to create one of the main layers of the exhibition.
++
Saturday, 27 January, 11.00am – 6.00pm
*Venue: Outside Block 43 Malan Road
11.00am
Discursive Brunch 70 x 7 The Meal Act XLI (41) by Lucy + Jorge Orta (United Kingdom/France, Argentina/France) and restaurateur Ken Loon (Singapore), The Naked Finn
Lucy + Jorge Orta’s discursive brunch draws from the tradition of communal eating to create a platform that explores questions relating to the ocean, such as the entitlements of resources, its waters, food security, as well as ownership of oceanic practices, materials, and images.
This special meal is developed in collaboration with restaurateur Ken Loon of Singapore’s The Naked Finn, who has locally sourced the ingredients, each of which will be explained and related back to the wider conversation of Singapore’s food sources, its specific environment and infrastructure.
*Venue: The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
2.00pm
Introduction
2.15pm
Case Study by Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka’uta (Fiji), Director, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific Heritage Hub, UNESCO Faculty of Arts, Law and Education, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji
2.45pm
Case Study by Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United States), Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Iowa, United States
3.15pm
Short Provocations
Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/United States), artist
Barney Broomfield (United Kingdom/United States), filmmaker
Dr Guigone Camus (France), anthropologist
Newell Harry (Australia), artist
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore), media artist, and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore), composer, sound artist, and researcher
Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam), artist
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom), art writer, curator, and Editor-in-Chief, art-agenda
Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany), artist and filmmaker
SUPERFLEX (Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger, and Rasmus Nielsen) (Denmark), artists
5.15pm
Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic Worldview through Art and Science Publication Launch and Reception
Published by MIT Press and TBA21–Academy
To Burn, Forest, Fire takes place as a series of incense burning ceremonies that awaken our sensorium and elicit an intimate, intuitive relation to the natural world confronting us with the sensorial richness of forest ecologies and the prospect of extinctions caused by humanity. Stemming from collaborations with scientists across different disciplines, the work speculates on the olfactory qualities of the first and last forest on our planet. The earliest forest is believed to have formed in present-day Cairo (New York State, United States) about 385 million years ago; whereas the last forest before environmental collapse is identified with the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, an ecosystem threatened by rampant deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices. Katie Paterson’s interdisciplinary investigation resulted in the creation of incense sticks, blended by Japanese incense maker Shoyeido, that propagate the distinct fragrances of the two forests pushing our understanding
of reality beyond the domain of the visible.
This project was originally initiated by IHME Helsinki, a contemporary art organisation in Finland that situates its activities in a dialogue between art and science.
Part of Free Jazz IV. Geomancers
To Burn, Forest, Fire takes place as a series of incense burning ceremonies that awaken our sensorium and elicit an intimate, intuitive relation to the natural world confronting us with the sensorial richness of forest ecologies and the prospect of extinctions caused by humanity. Stemming from collaborations with scientists across different disciplines, the work speculates on the olfactory qualities of the first and last forest on our planet. The earliest forest is believed to have formed in present-day Cairo (New York State, United States) about 385 million years ago; whereas the last forest before environmental collapse is identified with the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, an ecosystem threatened by rampant deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices. Katie Paterson’s interdisciplinary investigation resulted in the creation of incense sticks, blended by Japanese incense maker Shoyeido, that propagate the distinct fragrances of the two forests pushing our understanding
of reality beyond the domain of the visible.
This project was originally initiated by IHME Helsinki, a contemporary art organisation in Finland that situates its activities in a dialogue between art and science.
Part of Free Jazz IV. Geomancers
Shot in southern and eastern China in the early 1990s, ‘What about China’ is an essayistic reflection on the rich and complex history of the country and of the film medium.
As a special treat for this occasion, we are happy to share this interview between Trinh T. Minh-ha and our director Ute Meta Bauer, presented by Ella Raidel, Ass. Assistant Professor, NTU ADM School of Art, Design and Media.
With thanks to the editors of Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings for granting us permission to share.
“Trinh T. Minh-ha and Ute Meta Bauer in Conversation on What about China?” in Postcolonial Futures. Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings, Vol 20 n. 2, pp. 145-152. Published by University of Leeds and Nanyang Technological University.
]]>NTU CCA Singapore is proud to have co-commissioned the winning film ’What about China’ for the solo show “Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films” (October 2020 - February 2021), our last exhibition in Block 43.
Shot in southern and eastern China in the early 1990s, ‘What about China’ is an essayistic reflection on the rich and complex history of the country and of the film medium.
As a special treat for this occasion, we are happy to share this interview between Trinh T. Minh-ha and our director Ute Meta Bauer, presented by Ella Raidel, Ass. Assistant Professor, NTU ADM School of Art, Design and Media.
With thanks to the editors of Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings for granting us permission to share.
“Trinh T. Minh-ha and Ute Meta Bauer in Conversation on What about China?” in Postcolonial Futures. Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings, Vol 20 n. 2, pp. 145-152. Published by University of Leeds and Nanyang Technological University.
Experimental in form as well as in method, Climates. Habitats. Environments. features an inventive book design by mono.studio that puts word and image on equal footing, offering a multiplicity of media, interpretations, and manifestations of interdisciplinary research. For example, botanist Matthew Hall draws on Ovid's Metamorphoses to discuss human-plant interpenetration; curator and writer Venus Lau considers how spectrality consumes—and is consumed—in animation and film, literature, music, and cuisine; and critical theorist and filmmaker Elizabeth Povinelli proposes “Water Sense” as a geontological approach to “the question of our connected and differentiated existence,” informed by the “ancestral catastrophe of colonialism.” Artists excavate the natural and cultural DNA of indigo, lacquer, rattan, and mulberry; works at the intersection of art, design, and architecture explore “The Posthuman City”; an ongoing research project investigates the ecological urgencies of Pacific archipelagos. The works of art, the projects, and the majority of the texts featured in the book were commissioned by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
]]>Experimental in form as well as in method, Climates. Habitats. Environments. features an inventive book design by mono.studio that puts word and image on equal footing, offering a multiplicity of media, interpretations, and manifestations of interdisciplinary research. For example, botanist Matthew Hall draws on Ovid's Metamorphoses to discuss human-plant interpenetration; curator and writer Venus Lau considers how spectrality consumes—and is consumed—in animation and film, literature, music, and cuisine; and critical theorist and filmmaker Elizabeth Povinelli proposes “Water Sense” as a geontological approach to “the question of our connected and differentiated existence,” informed by the “ancestral catastrophe of colonialism.” Artists excavate the natural and cultural DNA of indigo, lacquer, rattan, and mulberry; works at the intersection of art, design, and architecture explore “The Posthuman City”; an ongoing research project investigates the ecological urgencies of Pacific archipelagos. The works of art, the projects, and the majority of the texts featured in the book were commissioned by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
The focus of the Open College is on flexible learning and transdisciplinarity, with a view to build mind share, bridge capability gaps and promote a culture of lifelong learning.
From July 2021, the Centre will progressively roll out progammes covering creative writing, cultural project development and environmental entrepreneurship and more.
The Open College offers two types of programmes: Discovery and Immersive Series. The Immersion Series are 5-day in-depth and structured programmes led by professional educators, researchers and critical thinkers in their fields of expertise. Through a blend of in-class and offsite training, participants will deep dive into a subject matter and gain new perspectives through a blend of practical projects and discussions to stimulate critical thinking and dialogue.
Discovery programmes are by contrast, shorter, exploratory courses that allow participants to potentially explore topics outside their usual fields or interest, and acquire basic knowledge and skillsets that may be transferrable to other areas of study and work.
]]>The focus of the Open College is on flexible learning and transdisciplinarity, with a view to build mind share, bridge capability gaps and promote a culture of lifelong learning.
From July 2021, the Centre will progressively roll out progammes covering creative writing, cultural project development and environmental entrepreneurship and more.
The Open College offers two types of programmes: Discovery and Immersive Series. The Immersion Series are 5-day in-depth and structured programmes led by professional educators, researchers and critical thinkers in their fields of expertise. Through a blend of in-class and offsite training, participants will deep dive into a subject matter and gain new perspectives through a blend of practical projects and discussions to stimulate critical thinking and dialogue.
Discovery programmes are by contrast, shorter, exploratory courses that allow participants to potentially explore topics outside their usual fields or interest, and acquire basic knowledge and skillsets that may be transferrable to other areas of study and work.