Creative Minds Meet in Siem Reap to Address Climate Issues
Attendees and organizers of the KONNECT ASEAN's Climate Futures Conference #2 in Siem Reap city on Oct 26. Photo: Ky Chamna
- By Ky Chamna
- October 28, 2023 2:00 PM
SIEM REAP – “The climate crisis right now is not a problem only for the government or any particular sector. It is a problem for all of us,” Dr. Piti Srisangnam, Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation, said at KONNECT ASEAN’s Climate Futures Conference #2.
The conference aims to gather creative minds to discuss, inspire and create artistic solutions to inform the public as well as to come up with ways to mitigate the effect of climate issues.
About 35 artists, scholars, researchers, policymakers and government officials from ASEAN nations, Korea and beyond took part in the conference in Siem Reap city between October 26 and 28.
Funded by the ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund, this year’s conference builds upon the success of last year’s conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“Artists do have their own important role in formulating educational arts as a way to teach and inspire the public about the environment that they live in”, H.E. Dr. Min Chandynavuth, Under-Secretary of State from the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Cambodia said.
As artists are popular with the public, what they do may have more impact.
Ideas were presented for environmentally friendly recreational activities along with technological approaches to disaster management. Contributions included presentations, speeches, discussion sessions and workshops, inspirational design projects and poems.
Nashin Mahtani, Director of Yayasan Peta Bencana (Disaster Map Foundation), a Southeast Asian non-profit organisation which develops humanitarian technologies for community-led disaster risk reduction, presented her open-source software application that can allows authorities and disaster responders to swiftly pinpoint disaster-prone regions using information provided by victims through their social media accounts.
The system has helped support communities during floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions by strategically assisting logistics teams to divert resources more effectively.
“The conference provides a great avenue to present our work that we are doing especially around the ASEAN region. Since this technology is open source, it is free and anyone can use it by adapting it to your own needs”, said Nashin Mahtani, who was also featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in 2021.
The technology, introduced in Indonesia, has spread to countries outside Southeast Asia such as Bangladesh in South Asia and Panama in Central America.
By addressing the Strategic Plan for Culture and Arts 2016-2025 of the Senior Officials Meeting on Culture and Arts, more than just conferences, the KONNECT ASEAN initiative also put into action many more diverse activities such as exhibitions, public programs, residencies, publications and archives in different locations across the region including Busan, Chiang Mai, Manila, Singapore, Yogyakarta, and many more.
“When we talk about climate science, sometimes it can be a compartmentalised knowledge from the experts. So, art can be a language that speaks to a wider audience”, said Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Nanyang Technological University Centre for Contemporary Art’s Founding Director.
“After coming to Cambodia for more than 10 years, it is amazing to see the development here as some artists in Siem Reap province are starting schools. I hope art education will expand because it is also a way of making a living”, she said.
The conference also saw Siem Reap-based contemporary artist Yim Maline from Blue Art Center with her art project called “Travelling Through Time”.
“Since art exhibits a space of ideas, artists can inspire those ideas of the environment through artistic means”, Maline explained as her contemporary art works involves the use of recycled materials since they have within themselves a sense of story, happiness and struggle.
With the gradual growth of contemporary art in Cambodia, Under Secretary of State Dr. Min Chandynavuth added that the level of resources in this area is already good. However, more publicity is still needed for those who live in non-urban areas.
Zul Rorvy and Luy Sirey Reaksa contributed to this story.
