Ecosystems]]> Sustainability]]> To Gathering: Food Flows
Saturday, 18 February 2023
10.00am – 1.00pm
Venue: Kampung Kampus, 91 Lorong Chencharu, Singapore 769201

What does it take to make food? How can we connect with our food stories, heritage and systems in creative ways? Composed around Ground-up Initiative, a low-carbon footprint campus, this experience offers a two-part journey, beginning with a guided tour where participants get their hands dirty through composting and harvesting, followed by a creative exercise exploring how we can deal with loss and bounty in the systems that sustain us—so that we can sustain them. To Gathering is a series by Brack, a Singapore-based platform for socially engaged artists in Southeast Asia who are interested in dialogical exchanges across mediums, disciplines, and communities.]]>
Alecia Neo]]> Madhumitha Ardhanari]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Migration]]> Indigenous Knowledge]]> Tradition]]> Sustainability]]> Sunday, 19 February 2023
10.00am – 12.00pm
Venue: West Coast Park

This workshop shares the impacts of relocation; from the southern islands to mainland Singapore and the aftermath that still threatens the livelihoods and traditions of active Orang Laut/Pulau community members. It explores food through Orang Laut/Pulau values and traditions that have shaped (and still shape) a more sustainable way of life. With a visit to West Coast Park, where a small Orang Laut/Pulau community still thrives, this session questions Singapore’s progress as a young nation, asking if there is space for indigenous cultures and traditions to stay alive here. The session highlights some ways young individuals in Singapore can contribute to salvaging a lesser-known tradition. It also speaks of heritage and culture through a shared meal. Firdaus shares a tangible aspect of his family’s heritage—its cuisine that reflects a life on the island that is no longer accessible. The food is lovingly cooked by Pulau Semakau islanders who have learnt their ancestors’ original cooking methods and recipes.]]>
Firdaus Sani]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Ecology]]> Supernatural]]> Experiential]]> Saturday, 18 February 2023
3.00 – 5.30pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Singapore 109452

This experimental approach to “de-anthropocentrate” design and care includes ways to “build a committed and eco-responsible ‘living together’ that includes the plant, animal and fungal kingdoms, up to the communities of bacteria in our biotopes.” Participants learn how to use biotechnology, such as fermentation, at home and show how fermentation can help reduce various problems related to health, the environment and sustainability.
The second part, Living Material: Fermentation Culture, is a hands-on social exploration of biomaterials highlighting by-products of both fermentation and tofu-making processes. Participants learn about kombucha—its production process as well as the material properties (texture, durability, colour, transparency, breathability, biodegradability and aesthetics) of the SCOBY, which can be turned into vegan leather in the kitchen at home]]>
Irene Agrivina]]> Saad Chinoy]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Experiential]]> Sustainability]]> Sunday, 19 February 2023
11.30am – 1.30pm
Venue: Intermission Bar, The Projector, 6001 Beach Rd, #05-00 GOLDEN MILE TOWER, Singapore 199589

Let’s gather around a table full of stories, memories and companionship! Present day food practices and habits are inherently influenced by cultural, racial and ethnic identities. By bringing people together, in a communal and artistic cooking experience over ubiquitous hotpots, this workshop intends to unpack the significance and legacies of certain ingredients and recipes.]]>
Mahbubur Rahman]]> Shimul Saha]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Sustainability]]> Technology]]> Sunday, 19 February 2023
3.00 – 5.00pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Singapore 109452

Get smarter about your food choices in this workshop! Participants in this workshop reflect on food information in the media and identify what influences their food choices and attitudes. Food advertising is everywhere (e.g., billboards, magazines, TV, radio, social media ads), so it is important to think about what advertisements influence your choices the most and why. In hands-on learning, you’ll identify your favourite advertising features, reflect on what appeals to you and why, and evaluate which sources of information influence you the most. Your next food choice may help you and Singapore reach greater food security.]]>
Keri Matwick]]> Kelsi Matwick]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Indigenous Knowledge]]> Knowledge Production]]> Botany]]> Sunday, 19 February 2023
2.30 – 4.30pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-02, Singapore 109452

What alternative narratives and creative strategies of healing practices, food histories, folk and community knowledge and its relation to land may be brought to the fore? Could there be a legacy through narratives around food and a way to resurface “lost knowledge” while bringing together various forms of cross-cultural wisdom? This workshop is part of Adeline Kueh’s larger body of work that examines the history of foraging, oral traditions and existing knowledge systems based on the artist’s cartographic research and reconsiders the human-nature relationship in light of climate change and the current pandemic. The workshop explores alternative knowledge-building of flora-fauna’s healing elements that can be responsive towards our immediate ecological concerns as well as applied by future generations.]]>
Adeline Kueh]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Biodiversity]]> Technology]]> Sunday, 19 February 2023
2.30 – 5.30pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 6 Lock Road, Research Office, Singapore 108934

This DIY technical workshop results in an automatic self-watering plant robot to help greens grow at home. By using Arduino, an easy-to-learn microcontroller for custom-made robots, and by connecting a photovoltaic panel to a battery that powers a soil-moisture-controlled automatic water pump, home-grown crops won’t dry out while owners are on holiday. The workshop consists of a brief introduction to the individual hardware components and how to connect all parts to achieve a functioning, solar-powered watering robot.
Working in pairs is recommended. Please bring your own laptop.]]>
Christoph Waibel]]> Shi Zhongming]]> Zhang Qianning]]> Huang Zhaolu]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Biodiversity]]> Technology]]> Saturday, 18 February 2023
2.30 – 5.30pm
Venue: Future Cities Laboratory, Value Lab, Level 6, CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way,
Singapore 138602

This workshop introduces a novel Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA) app that provides customised plant-growing suggestions, including vegetable type selection and a planting calendar, to grow your own greens at home! The app also provides a comparison of the environmental impact when growing vegetables at home against conventional methods. Activities include training on the beta version of the BIA app, a demonstration of the app’s built database and a hands-on plant-growing session.]]>
Christoph Waibel]]> Shi Zhongming]]> Zhang Qianning]]> Huang Zhaolu]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Sustainability]]> Biodiversity]]> Sunday, 19 February 2023 10.00am – 12.00pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 37 Malan Road, #01-04, Singapore 109452

This workshop picks up where the group’s UCCN Kuching City of Gastronomy presentation left off, examining the team’s creative approaches to constructing a narrative around Sarawak’s heirloom rice as an important traditional crop, explaining why the Sarawak indigenous cultures cultivated this one grain, largely for its spiritual and social significance rather than food security, and how that has impacted Borneo’s biodiversity.

The group invites workshop participants to share ways of crafting perceived value for an often-overlooked item. The highly interactive session aims to generate suggestions and sensory narratives for positioning Sarawak rice in a modern global context using storytelling, documentationand other creative media. Participants collectively consider how issues of food security, food justice, sustainability andtraditional knowledge can be addressed in a commercial agricultural context, both to increase appreciation and to drive societal change.]]>
Karen Shepherd]]> Raine Melissa Riman]]> Franca Cole]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Nature]]> Sunday, 19 February 2023
10.00am – 12.30pm
Venue: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 6 Lock Road, Research Office, Singapore 108934

Edible Wild is a two-and-a-half-hour-long workshop aimed at bringing participants closer to nature. Despite the greenery that surrounds us in our concrete jungle, it is easy to overlook the plants that flank our sidewalks. As the world moves at an ever-increasing pace, we need the occasional reminder to slow down and reconnect with the earth—and one of the best ways to do so is to learn how to care for it. This workshop is a gentle introduction to the myriad of herbs, both common and uncommon, found growing around our garden city, as well as a chance to understand their history and uses. Participants learn simple plant identification techniques, pick up basic gardening skills to use at home and make simple herbal infusions. The overall goal is to renew a sense of wonder for our green companions while providing the skills to identify and care for them.

A programme of NTU CCA IdeasFest 2023 FOOD.]]>
Joy Chee]]> Southeast Asia]]>