Institute For The Future

Art, Science, and Climate Adventures in Asia

* Guest post by IFTF Artist in Residence Catherine Sarah Young

It’s been four months since The Apocalypse Project: House of Futures was launched at IFTF’s Future Gallery. Since the launch, I flew back to Asia to keep working on the project and also to see how the climate change discussion was happening in other cities in the world.

COP21 and Manila

When I came back to Manila in October, I participated in "COP21: The Road to Paris Starts in Manila”, a series of conferences for Climate Week, hosted by the Embassy of France to the Philippines. The conferences took inspiration from the Manila Call to Action on Climate Change, a global appeal to act for climate that was jointly launched by President François Hollande and President Benigno Aquino III in the Philippines earlier this year.

I was invited to speak for a couple of the conferences, and these were good opportunities to talk about the exhibition at IFTF and the work and art residencies I did in the Singapore-ETH Zurich Future Cities Laboratory and The Mind Museum in Manila that led me to start The Apocalypse Project. It was also illuminating to listen to various people who were all working on climate change in their respective fields, such as government, art, media, academia, and environmental organizations. I began The Apocalypse Project in 2013, around the time when Typhoon Haiyan hit southern Philippines. The country is no stranger to strong typhoons, and it is interesting and often encouraging to see how its people have adapted since then.

Bio-Art Seoul

For most of November, I was in South Korea. It’s always great to be back in Seoul, this time for a bio-art exhibition held at the Gwacheon National Science Museum.

Curated by Arthur Clay and presented by BioCon Research Laboratories, Seoulin Bioscience Co., and Digital Art Weeks International, Bio-Art Seoul 2015 was centered around the theme of “Sustainability: Abundance of Life”, and featured local and international artists. I was there to present the second volume of The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store, a perfume line of scents we could lose in the natural world because of climate change. This collection was inspired from my childhood growing up in the Philippines, and featured the following scents: The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store: A Walk Home has these eight scents: Recess, A Chinese Apothecary, Time with My Mom, Swimming Lessons, Wild Grass, Manila Sunsets, Carnival, and Moments of Solitude.

During the exhibition, it was fascinating to see families and especially children smell the perfumes and be excited about it, considering the grim scenario of the project. I am a huge advocate of science museums as agencies of awareness and change, and using interactive experiences as inclusive ways to disseminate information and engage audiences.

Memories and Perfumery

In South Korea, I also held a perfumery workshop with some high school and university students in the museum. Wearing my apocalypse suit, I asked the participants to first smell several mystery scents and recall the memories that came to mind. Later, I asked them to do a Smell Walk and gather objects from nature that they wanted to make a perfume of. We distilled essential oils and diluted them into perfumes. After the long experiment, we also discussed The Apocalypse Project and the role of art and science in raising climate change awareness all over the world. In the end, I gave the participants their own Apocalypse Project Commander Badge as a reward for all their hard work.

Climate Change and Asia

It is interesting to see how climate change is viewed in different parts of Asia. On this side of the world, one doesn’t feel much climate change denial (if any). Instead, what I see on the positive note are people finding interesting opportunities for conversation and ways to adapt and prevent further catastrophe. On the other hand, one can also sense fear and helplessness, especially during typhoon season. As world leaders finally came to an agreement in Paris during COP21, we need to ensure that these words turn into actions and don’t end up as empty promises.