Ecology]]> Ecosystems]]> Nature]]> Sustainability]]> Climate Crisis]]> Environmental Crisis]]> The Earth Observatory of Singapore]]> Southeast Asia]]> Artistic Research]]> Biodiversity]]> Climate Crisis]]> Environmental Crisis]]> Ecology]]> Ecosystems]]> Indigenous Knowledge]]> Knowledge Production]]> History]]> Mythology]]> The Anthropocene]]> Nature]]> Ways of Seeing]]> Venture into the research-in-progress conducted by our current Artists-in-Residence Ng Hui Hsien, The Observatory, and Zarina Muhammad within the inaugural cycle of STAR RESIDENCIES (Science, Technology, Art & Research)—a programme that positions scientific research at the core of artistic inspiration.

These open studio sessions present the ongoing research developed through the artists’ engagement and dialogue with earth scientists from the NTU Earth Observatory of Singapore. By foregrounding experimental research methodologies and the creative interpretation of scientific knowledge, the programme highlights the critical role of interdisciplinary exchange in addressing complex planetary phenomena.

Working across a range of ecological terrains and methodologies, the residents engage with the Earth’s shifting matters through diverse polysensory and multi-disciplinary approaches. Ng Hui Hsien traverses volcanic terrains to contemplate human-environment relations through the dual lenses of scientific evidence and lived experience, while The Observatory explores subterranean pulses through sound-based inquiry and interspecies frameworks, seeking to expand our comprehension of tectonic forces through sonic engagement. In parallel, Zarina Muhammad treads through intertidal zones and coastal sites as living archives of sea-level change, ecological memory, and the deep-time relations between land, sea, and climate.

STAR RESIDENCIES OPEN provides a unique entry point into the artists’ studios to observe the non-linear trajectory of creative research; here, visitors can encounter the evolving processes and interdisciplinary materials central to this residency.

]]> 31 January 2026]]> Ng Hui Hsien]]> The Observatory]]> Zarina Muhammad]]> The Earth Observatory of Singapore]]> Southeast Asia]]> Environmental Crisis]]> Experiential]]> Ecology]]> Ecosystems]]> Ng Hui Hsien]]> Southeast Asia]]> Environmental Crisis]]> Ecosystems]]> Ecology]]> Experiential]]> Through collaboration with NTU Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) for the STAR RESIDENCY, Ng Hui Hsien aims to complement scientific tools and methods of environmental studies with indigenous ecological knowledge shaped by lived experience, oral traditions, and direct observation. On one hand, she will engage with materials such as satellite imagery, seismic monitoring systems, and photomicrographs to understand how Earth scientists observe and evaluate environmental changes and geohazards. On the other hand, drawing on her background in ethnography, she plans to conduct field research and engage with communities and individuals imbued with a deep connection to the environment to understand the rhythms of their lives as they unfold on site, the changes they observe, and their knowledge and cosmologies related to natural processes and phenomena. Ultimately, the artist intends to translate this research across different bodies of knowledge into artistic outcomes that deepen the awareness of ecological interconnectedness and convey a sense of reverence for nature. ]]> Ng Hui Hsien]]> Southeast Asia]]> Architecture]]> Climate Crisis]]> Environmental Crisis]]> Decay, decomposition, weathering, rot. Landscapes eroding, architectures disintegrating, bodies breaking down, coming apart, becoming dirt. We hardly have a kinship with decay for, like dirt, decay is—in the words of anthropologist Mary Douglas—matter out-of-place in our perpetually renewing cities. Indeed, the city we are brought to inhabit and desire is built with ever-more weatherproof architectures, with cosmetic treatments that maintain the hardness of the buildings and the smoothness of their surfaces impervious to the traces of Nature’s time. In waterfront cities, which novelist Amitav Ghosh regards as a showcase of architectural mastery over the unruly environment, the cartography of terrestrial edges continues to reinforce the separation of interiorised human-made worlds from exteriorised more-than-human environment. Seen through the lens of the city, the design of the future Earth aspires to be atemporal. And like so many transient and shifting environments stilled in human projections of the Earth (from maps to masterplans), the “unweathered” city must thrive outside of time, devoid of stains and discolouration. But does the city have to be in an anxious race against Nature’s time? 

Created and led by Superlative Futures, Drawing Dialogues: Stories of Decay is a workshop for re-attuning our urban selves to Nature’s time. The programme focuses on rethinking the place of decay in the wellbeing of cities and on re-presenting stories of decay as matters of care. The workshop will start off with a walk in the Berlayer Creek­—a rare remnant of Singapore’s mangrove histories once denigrated as a place of dankness and disease—where participants will be led to uncover stories of decay and gather thoughts and materials of decomposition. The second part of the workshop will take place at NTU CCA Singapore where, drawing and dialoguing with decay, participants will be guided to create their own narratives and landscapes of decay culminating in a collaborative artwork. Expanding on Superlative Futures’ speculative design research on new ecological practices for weathering the future city, this workshop marks the beginning of a propositional archive—A Cartography of Decay—that charts different relationships between decay and the city. 

This event is a public programme created in response to the exhibition Design Earth: Speculative Fiction for the Climate, on view by appointment at NTU ADM Gallery 2 until 15 August 2025. 

This programme is free with registration. Limited capacity.  

Workshop Schedule

9:00 – 10:00am
Meet at Labrador Park MRT, Exit A
Move as a group to Berlayer Creek

10:30am – 12:00pm
Drawing session at The Hall, NTU CCA Singapore

It is recommended to bring water, sunblock, umbrella, mosquito repellent, and notetaking materials (e.g. pencil/pen and paper). This is a rain or shine event.

]]> Superlative Futures]]> Southeast Asia]]> Architecture]]> Design]]> Climate Crisis]]> Environmental Crisis]]> Join DESIGN EARTH co-founders and co-directors Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy for their first presentation in Singapore, where they will share insights into their collaborative research practice centred on the speculative architectural project as a mode of making the climate crisis public. Their design research brings together spatial history, geographic representation, projective design, and material public assemblies to speculate on ways of living with legacy technologies on a damaged planet. Recipients of the United States Artist Fellowship and the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers, among other honors, Ghosn and Jazairy have made a practice of telling complex and unwieldy stories of the Earth. Learn more about their ongoing explorations of visual and spatial storytelling.

Friday, 13 June 2025 
6:30 – 8:30 pm
The Hall, NTU CCA Singapore
6 Lock Rd, #01-09/10 Gillman Barracks 108934

]]> DESIGN EARTH]]> Rania Ghosn]]> El Hadi Jazairy]]> Video]]> Asia]]> North America]]> Architecture]]> Climate Crisis]]> Environmental Crisis]]> Design]]> Experiential]]> Saturday, 24 May 2025 
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm 

Come walk, draw, and speculate. Drawing as a visual and creative practice can also be a tool for scientific inquiry and speculation. Plotting detailed lines can help process the larger picture of the distanced and abstracted planet crisis. Inspired by the exhibition, Design Earth: Speculative Fiction for the Climate, this drawing club invites artists, architects, designers, and students to probe how architectural drawings can unearth the more inconspicuous matters of climate change. Facilitated by Eunice Lacaste, Programme Associate, NTU CCA Singapore.

This Drawing Club invites artists, architects, designers, and students to present their annotated sketches at the NTU ADM Foyer from July to August 2025. 

No technical drawing experience needed—just a willingness to trace complexity. Participants are encouraged to bring dry drawing media (markers, found images, etc) and reading references (articles, books, etc) to share, annotate, and get inspiration from during the session.

A public programme of Design Earth: Speculative Fiction for the Climate exhibition.

]]> Eunice Lacaste]]> Southeast Asia]]> Architecture]]> Design]]> Climate Crisis]]> Environmental Crisis]]> Join Vaishnavi Peddapalli, NTU School of Humanities Class of 2025, for a student-led (de)tour of Design Earth: Speculative Fiction for the Climate that will explore how speculative fiction can reconsider Southeast Asian geographical catastrophes borne from human intervention. Considering localised discourse around climate change and its impact on younger generations, this experience provides space for speculation for our planet’s future.

ADM Gallery 2
NTU School of Art, Design and Media
81 Nanyang Dr, Singapore 637458

This event is free for all participants.

A public programme of Design Earth: Speculative Fiction for the Climate exhibition.

]]> Vaishnavi Peddapalli]]> Southeast Asia]]> Architecture]]> Design]]> Climate Crisis]]> Environmental Crisis]]> Join DESIGN EARTH co-founders and co-directors Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy for their first presentation in Singapore, where they will share insights into their collaborative research practice centred on the speculative architectural project as a mode of making the climate crisis public. Their design research brings together spatial history, geographic representation, projective design, and material public assemblies to speculate on ways of living with legacy technologies on a damaged planet. Recipients of the United States Artist Fellowship and the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers, among other honors, Ghosn and Jazairy have made a practice of telling complex and unwieldy stories of the Earth. Learn more about their ongoing explorations of visual and spatial storytelling.

Friday, 13 June 2025 
6:30 – 8:30 pm

The Hall, NTU CCA Singapore
6 Lock Rd, #01-09/10 Gillman Barracks 108934

A public programme of Design Earth: Speculative Fiction for the Climate exhibition.

]]> Rania Ghosn]]> El Hadi Jazairy]]> Asia]]> North America]]> Animals]]> Climate Crisis]]> Environmental Crisis]]> Nature]]> Sustainability]]> DESIGN EARTH‘s latest project is a series of fables that addresses the elephant in the room—the climate crisis—by animating charismatic figures from natural history museums. This design research identifies and leverages figures from the collections all while unsettling the museum apparatus—the devices, archives, histories, and audiences. Some such figures include a taxidermy of an African matriarch elephant, the skeleton of a stranded blue whale, and a composite structure of a Diplodocuscarnegii. The fragmentary remains of such creatures are animated, brought back to life, so to speak in rhyming verse, colorful imagery, and with some poignant humor. These speculative afterlives stir up potent trouble on the breath-taking capture of life in the Anthropocene to ask how cultural institutions may be responsible to calls for decolonisation and decarbonisation. In Singapore, this hands-on, participatory workshop will focus on the cultural prehistory, present, and speculative futures of the Singapore saltwater (estuarine) crocodile and the Malayan tiger. Facilitated by Rania Ghosn, El Hadi Jazairy, and DESIGN EARTH team member Kelly Koh. Beginning with the Artist Talk on 13 June, participants will engage in DESIGN EARTH creative methodologies including site visits and the building of a research archive while looking into the facts and fictions of these creatures and their homes.

INTENSIVE WORKSHOP SESSIONS

The Hall, NTU CCA Singapore
6 Lock Rd, #01-09/10 Gillman Barracks 108934

Over five days, participants will engage in speculative design research with DESIGN EARTH to develop narratives around “fabulous creatures.” Working with the figures of the Tiger and the Crocodile, participants will use DESIGN EARTH’s visual and textual archive-based methods to create new creature narratives that reflect environmental, cultural, and mythological complexities.

13 June (Fri), 1800 – 1830h: Mandatory Workshop Briefing.
Participants will be divided into two groups, each focusing on one animal.
Design Earth Artist Talk: Geostories will happen at 1830. 

14 June (Sat), 1200 – 1700h: Mandatory Field Trip
1300 – 1400h: Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum Tour
Participants are responsible for covering their own entry fees.

1500 – 1600: Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm
Participants are responsible for covering their own entry fee of SGD 22

1600 – 1700: Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
 
1700: Shuttle bus back to NTU CCA Singapore
Participants can choose to proceed to the Night Safari with DESIGN EARTH on their own time and cost.

16 June (Mon), 1830 – 2030h: Optional workshop attendance
17 June (Tue), 1830 – 2030h: Optional workshop attendance
18 June (Wed), 1830 – 2030h: Mandatory Final Workshop Presentation

Other than the ticket cost for the LKCNHM and Crocodile Farm, this workshop is FREE for all participants. A refundable deposit of SGD 25 is requested to book a slot. To qualify for a cancellation refund, you must cancel your reservation by 11 June, 12pm. For those who can attend, the deposit will be returned upon attendance of the events.

A public progamme of Design Earth: Speculative Fiction for the Climate exhibition.

]]> Design Earth]]> Rania Ghosn]]> El Hadi Jazairy]]> Kelly Koh]]> Southeast Asia]]>