BAO Jiang

born 1968, China

works Beijing

An Exhibition of Multimodal and Multisensory Ethnographies - My Fieldwork with the Naxi in Eya

Video 1 Happy New Year

2008

One-channel: video, color, sound

58 Minutes

Variable

Video 2 First Visit of Eya Dongba to Guangzhou

2024

One-channel: video, color, sound

44 Minutes

Variable

The practical purpose of ethnography to enable anthropologists to disseminate their long-term field research experience to the public. The traditional production of ethnographic knowledge is divided into two professional forms: scholarly texts and museum artifacts. Subsequently, with the development of media technology and reflection on knowledge ontology, the production of ethnographic knowledge gradually expanded towards multimodality and multisensory. In addition to text, various modalities such as photo, film, installation, painting, and drama were also developed. In addition to visual perception, tactile and olfactory senses were also involved. An Exhibition of Multimodal and Multisensory Ethnographies - My Fieldwork with the Naxi in Eya shares my field research experience of more than 20 years since my first visit to the Naxi in Eya in 1998; On the other hand, exhibition of multimodal and multisensory ethnographies as a method for sharing field research results is proposed.

Ekin Kee Charles

born 1996, Malaysia

works Sabah

Pace

2019

One-channel: video, color, sound

8 Minutes

Variable

The short film ‘Pace’ explores identity at a tender age through the perspective of Yaya, who discovers a longing for something her group of friends have, that she doesn’t. And it is not as simple as one would think.

Rama-Rama

2021

One-channel: video, color, sound

16 Minutes

Variable

Driven by conventional perception of beauty, a mother prepares her daughter for an upcoming cultural pageant unaware of what her daughter is really trying to express or the motive of the tradition.

Ho Rui An

born 1990, Singapore

works Singapore

A Petropolis in a Garden with a Long View

2024

Video installation with laser etched crystal, acrylic awards, books, globe-shaped bookends, office table and chair, sofa, planter boxes, assorted plants and wallpaper.

Variable

Sitting off the coast of Singapore are fleets of very large crude carriers that speak to the economic significance of the oil industry to the city-state. Yet, despite this being the first image that greets the visitor arriving into Singapore by air, oil rarely figures within prevailing imaginaries of the country which, ever since the success of a nationwide greening movement that began in 1963, is better known internationally as an ecologically conscious Garden City.

Conceived as a botanical-themed oil executive’s office, A Petropolis in a Garden with a Long View is an environmental installation that seeks to give visual form to this relatively inscrutable industry in Singapore by setting it against a scenography of the island city’s postcolonial repopulation by greenery. The work proposes that Singapore is more accurately described as a “petropolis in a garden”, as demonstrated by the selection of objects, books, images, and videos within the installation that reflect the city-state’s involvement in the refining, storage, distribution, and petrochemical businesses that have allowed it to become a global oil hub despite having no natural oil resources.

In situating this scenography within an office rather than an industrial facility, the work further reflects on the forms of mental labour involved in managing the production and distribution of a commodity as complex as oil, especially after the industry’s financialisation in the late twentieth century. The abstract nature of the products devised within an office as such is exemplified by the scenarios that have been produced by Shell since the 1970s through a methodology pioneered by the company that involves devising plausible narratives about the future in order to anticipate future shocks. This “art of the long view”, as former head of scenario planning at Shell Peter Schwartz puts it, is represented in the installation by a series of fabricated books with the titles of different Shell scenarios from 1989 to the present indicated on their spines.

Kathleen Lei Limayo

born 1990, Philippines

works Manila

Things We Carry

2025

Three-channel: video, color, sound

4 Minutes and 33 seconds

Variable

“Things We Carry” is a multi-modal visual anthropology exhibit highlighting the day-to-day life of Filipinos as they experience climate change. Inside a typical Filipino home, everyday household items are vital for survival during crises. The Things We Carry symbolizes Filipino resiliency and creativity amidst a changing planet.

Natasha Tontey

born 1989, Indonesia

works Yogyakarta

Garden Amidst the Flame

2022

One-channel: video, B&W, sound

27 Minutes and 40 seconds

Variable

Expanding my artistic research in Minahasan cosmology, in this new film work, Garden Amidst the Flame , I developed a queering approach to understanding one of the main ritual ceremonies in Minahasa society, Karai. Karai is a ritual in which Minahasan warriors are “dressed” with invincible armour to make them invulnerable to tribe war. In contemporary Minahasa, Karai is mostly understood as a hyper-masculine ritual as most of the participants are male tribesmen. However, in this work, based on my research and experience, I will explore the potential idea of speculative care in Karai. As this ritual is closely connected to the notion of wear, symbols, and clothes, and considering that in the mythology of Minahasan cosmos that the world is not a heternormative playground, I will observe the possibility of destabilising and reconfiguring the assumption of Karai in relation to the idea of care and invulnerability instead of aggression and masculinity.

QIN Jin

born 1976, China

works Guangzhou

Two Fathers

2024

Three-channel: video, color, sound

17 Minutes and 43 seconds

Variable

Chinese people, especially those who have been educated in the Mainland since childhood, no matter where they go or settle down, it is very difficult for them to get rid of the influence of traditional culture, They often hold on to an inherent notion, a value that considers family and obedience to be the most important. And this concept is used as the basis for understanding the world, the country and the collective, and even the government. They will magnify the structural relationships and power relations of the family to the nation, the community. They will also see the administrators as parents. This is the origin of the idea of ‘heaven and earth, ruler, parent and teacher’, which has been the most important value system in traditional Chinese culture. Obedience to ‘heaven and earth, ruler, parent and teacher has always been the core of traditional Chinese culture and education.

The concept behind this work came to me last year, and it was completed in August the same year. I am 48 years old, an age when values and outlooks on life are already set in stone, but I still feel that I can find a little bit of space to deviate, change and amend within this absolute authoritative value system. Art is a way for individuals to find this breathing or resisting space. I have found two fathers’ for myself, and perhaps I could find a third or even more, depending on where the boundaries of my mind go, and whether or not my perceptions require me to embrace one more higher spiritual guide to balance or dilute or even break free from the influence and control of the authority that has been prescribed by my previous upbringing. And these two fathers are two watermelons in the video. I travelled with these two watermelons (actually I carried them or carried them on my back), went up the mountain together, and then when I reached the top of the mountain, I, as a traveler, was thirsty and hungry and needed to be filled, so I cut one of them up and ate it with the fruit knife I was carrying, while the other one I threw away. The watermelon was round and rolled all the way up the mountain and down the mountain never to be seen again.

And the video ends with an animation of the same watermelon rolling down the mountain, and another screen with a little boy running down the mountain, running and running without stopping.

Jenny Chio

born 1978, USA

works Los Angeles

The time to home The Way to home

2018

Three channel: video, color, sound

10 Minutes and 05 seconds

Variable

This installation records a very specific place (Kaili, Guizhou province) and a very intangible experience. The sound and sights of a journey home are tempered by the realities of obligation and relationships that make a place a home. The joy and weight of home falls differently on certain people, often determined by age and gender. As the years pass, the work of home can become increasingly heavy. Nevertheless, we want to make it home one day, every day.

Nguyễn Trinh Thi

born 1973, Vietnam

works Hanoi

How to Improve the World

2021

Three-channel: video, color,B&W, sound

47 Minutes

Variable

As our globalized and westernized cultures have come to be dominated by visual media, I feel the need and responsibility as a filmmaker to resist this narrative power of the visual imagery, and look for a more balanced and sensitive approach in perceiving the world by paying more attention to aural landscapes, in line with my interests in the unknown, the invisible, the inaccessible, and in potentialities.

Sorayut Aiem-UeaYut

born 1980, Thailand

works Chiang Mai

ularly within the context of Thai political violence.

Resonanzen?: State of Being and the Airport Sonic Environment

2025

Two-channel: video, color,B&W, sound

12 Minutes and 22 seconds

Variable

Resonanzen?:State of Being and the Airport Sonic Environment is a collaborative project by Sorayut Aiem-UeaYut and his team. Initiated in late 2024, the project builds upon a decade of experience living near Chiang Mai International Airport. It explores the auditory landscape of surrounding communities, capturing human activities, the bustling sounds of marketplaces, and the natural chorus of birds, insects, and other living beings now enclosed by the airport’s expanding reach.

A central question arises: what is the state of being amid the overwhelming presence of aircraft noise, often classified as pollution due to its excessive sound levels? To investigate, Sorayut and his team conducted a survey along the flight paths of both landing and takeoff routes, spanning approximately 10 kilometers. They found that aircraft noise is not merely a backdrop—it actively reshapes the environment, influencing the rhythm of daily life. If so, how do the surrounding lives resonate and respond? And what are the possibilities for "sonic companion species" in reaction to the aircraft sounds?

ZHANG Jinghong

born 1975, China

works Shenzhen

Cities and Air Conditioning

2024

One-channel: video, color, sound

14 Minutes

Variable

In many big cities known for their hot weather, air conditioning has long been ingrained and commonplace, but in some small cities once known for their excellent natural environment, people's use of air conditioning is in an embarrassing dilemma.

Old villages crowned with cultural heritage are gradually being enveloped and overlooked by high-rise buildings. Amidst the mix of modern and traditional building materials, people are connecting air conditioners. However, the locals are still uncertain about the use of air conditioning.

The population is becoming increasingly mixed in the small city. The main reason for immigrants to come here is said to be the pleasant weather, although some have also brought with them the habit of using air conditioning. The locals are half enthusiastic about the immigrants and half resistant, just as their use of air conditioning is incomplete.

The rise and fall of natural species around the city also reflects a certain awkwardness, as cash crops, once considered potentially environmentally unfriendly, become green forests for home buyers. These 'green landscapes', along with air-conditioned landscapes, migrant landscapes and tourist landscapes, put pressure on small towns.

Indigenous people with air conditioning complain that the city is getting hotter and hotter; immigrants in high-rise buildings criticise real estate companies for destroying local folklore and culture; tourists visit traditional houses but insist on having air conditioning as an essential part of their accommodation......

What have made small towns opt for air conditioning? What natural and social changeshas air conditioning brought about? Where do people head towards, with or without air conditioning? The present of small towns is the yesterday of many big cities; the former is confronting challenges in a more dislocated way. Air conditioning is a prism that inspires us to think about the awkwardness, distortion and inexplicability of development and construction, and urges us to strive for a more benign direction of urban life.

ZHOU Tao

born 1976, China

works Guangzhou

The Axis of Big Data

2024

One-channel: video, color, sound

37 Minutes and 08 seconds

Variable

The Axis of Big Data unfolds around the environment surrounding a big data center in the mountainous region of Guizhou. However, the film does not primarily focus on the data center itself. Instead, the camera lingers and roams through the mountainous terrain where the center is located, taking as its subject the surrounding landscapes and various forms of life—sometimes near, sometimes distant, seemingly unconnected yet coexisting at the periphery of the data center.

The film begins with a fleeting glimpse inside the server rooms of the data center. The camera’s gaze appears both incidental and deliberately investigative, while the hum of the machines signals the vast calculations shaping human life. As the camera moves further, the sounds of nature gradually emerge from the external environment, guiding us to encounter individuals traversing the mountains, slowly unfolding a meandering journey of life within the landscape. Responding to the contours of the mountains and terraced fields, the camera moves in a scattered, lateral trajectory, capturing moments that intertwine or unfold in parallel across different spaces. Throughout this process, the digital camera, with its own technical limitations, is constantly pushed to its limits—struggling, along with the filmmaker, to document the transient moments of the everyday life.