Blog | Angela YT Chan

2020

Gentle Strategising Curation with the MAMA Poule at MAMA in Rotterdam

Gentle Strategising was a full week of collective activities, organised by MAMA Rotterdam's 2020 'poule of programme makers' (Angela Chan (Worm: art + ecology), Leana Boven, Arvand Pourabbasi and Golnar Abbasi (WorkNot!), and Mary Ponomareva) in collaboration with local arts and activism groups. The space within and outside MAMA’s Showroom became sites for slow, open, creative, and reflective activities that strategically confronted urgent global injustices – reinforced by the pandemic, climate, racial and socio-economic injustices – at a local level. (September 21, 2020 → September 27, 2020)

September 21, 2020

curation collaboration
The Creator Roundtable Talk for the LSFRC Conference Beyond Border

I moderated the LSFRC Conference Beyond Border's Creator Roundtable with the speakers sf writer Chen Qiufan, filmmaker Larissa Sansour and writer Linda Stupart. Introducing each practitioner's methods and practices that involve science fiction, I shaped the collective conversation around creative disciplines as each speaker has worked between literature and film; how SF becomes a necessary mode of critical communication for storytelling their urgent themes; how they see justice in sf worldbuilding and into reality, and finally, what it means to them to work 'beyond borders.'

September 12, 2020

talk conference / symposium science fiction
Climate Change and Contemporary Chinese Science and Speculative Fiction Talk for LSFRC Conference 2020: Beyond Borders

I delivered my paper, 'Climate Change and Contemporary Chinese Science and Speculative Fiction: Invisible, Extractive and Uneven Boundaries' for Panel 1C: Chinese SF 1: Pass the Point of No Return, before also joining the panel discussion with the other speakers Guangzhao Lyu, Yen Ooi, and Jan Marvin A. Goh.

September 11, 2020

talk writing / publication conference / symposium science fiction
Hypericum: A Code of Practice Co-Research with Obsidian Coast

Alongside six other co-researchers, I was part of Obsidian Coast's Hypericum: A Code of Practice, a research project developing a collectively produced, ever-evolving code of practice for feminist, antiracist, anticolonial and environmentally sustainable arts organising. The project was led by a newly formed working group of UK based arts workers and small-scale organisations: Angela YT Chan, Divya Osbon, Anjali Prashar-Savoie, Jamila Prowse, Alba Colomo and Lucy Lopez (La Sala) and Nella Arne (Obsidian Coast). (July 13, 2020 → April 13, 2021)

July 13, 2020

collaboration research community organising
Common Ground Briefing Talk for Arts Admin's Season for Change

For artists looking to applying to The Common Ground commissions, I was invited by hosts Season for Change, Julie's Bicycle and Metal Liverpool to deliver an artist talk to frame the concepts of climate justice, aligned to racial and social justice issues, with artistic methods and projects. I was asked to speak about why I, as a curator, foreground amplifying artists of minoritised backgrounds, and how artists considering applying for these commissions could ensure they work towards a climate justice agenda, with social and planetary wellbeing at the heart of how they work.

June 25, 2020

talk
Climate: Articulated Knowledges and Speculative Stories Talk for MA Illustration: Authorial Practice at University of Falmouth

I shared recent curatorial projects as Worm: art + ecology, with research on knowledge systems and sinophone speculative fiction relating to climate change. I highlighted the power structures that determine our climate narratives, and confronts how issues of injustice permeate from the colonial history of climate change. 'What constitutes trusted knowledge? Who is in control of producing and sharing information? How does this information benefit or compromise marginalised groups?'

June 24, 2020

teaching talk
In Conversation: Changing Realities and Speculative Fictions in the work of Cao Fei - Writing Published with Science Fiction Writers Gu Shi and Regina Kanyu Wang for Serpentine Galleries London

Commissioned as an accompanying text to Cao Fei's exhibition Blueprints at Serpentine, I was invited to create a written response to the artist's science fictional themes in her films. I extended this conversation to science fiction writers Gu Shi and Regina Kanyu Wang (also an SF editor), and together, we discussed the context of Chinese SF throughout history and today. We touched on Cao Fei's films to explore of the topics in Cao Fei's works that resonate with the authors, such as rapid industrialisation, technology, labour, and the changing shapes of interpersonal relationships throughout society.

June 12, 2020

writing / publication collaboration science fiction
Relearning the History of Climate Change Interview for MAMA Rotterdam

As part of my guest curation for MAMA Rotterdam's exhibition programme, I was interviewed by Annosh Urbanke to talk more about my concepts, collaborations and intentions with Climate Knowledges (2020). I outlined the themes of speculative fictions and histories, both of which hold lived experiences of climate change alike, and what it means to align with climate justice that crosses cultures and geographies of climate activism and experiences.

June 11, 2020

interview
Futures of Waste: Articulated Knowledges and Speculative Stories Lecture for AA x ICA

For Architectural Association and ICA's Speculative Studies: Art and Ecology strand for postgraduates, I shared recent research and curatorial projects on knowledge systems, climate speculative fiction and the colonial history of climate change. In the second part of the session, I led an exploration into some sinophone speculative fiction that discuss these issues. Focusing on waste, from e-waste management to incinerator activism, the seminar expanded on the actors, processes and challenges of globalised consumerism and the industry of waste. We read Hao Jingfang’s short science fiction story ‘Folding Beijing’, and discussed the social and ecological impacts, and how stories can help frame justice on a global level.

May 20, 2020

teaching talk
Climate Knowledges Curation Exhibited at MAMA Rotterdam Now An Online Game

My exhibition as Worm: art + ecology, Climate Knowledges, on show at MAMA Rotterdam, was adapted as a virtual exhibition experience as a result of the pandemic lockdown in the Netherlands. Game designers Louisa Teichmann and Noemi Biro translated the artworks through photogrammetry and digital files of the artist and activists works. The virtual exhibition is viewable online. (May 2, 2020 → July 3, 2020)

May 2, 2020

curation collaboration
Myco-Lective Residency with Feral Practice and Chisenhale Studios

I joined Myco-Lective, a programme for artists engaging with ecological thinking, climate change, and multispecies futures. It took its inspiration from human and non-human models of education, collective action, care, reciprocal networking, and mutual aid, including the mycorrhizal networks of the forest, where plants share nourishment and knowledge via the under-soil web of fungal mycelium. We met regularly online for a year, supporting each other through a rotation of workshops and discussions. (April 29, 2020 → May 11, 2021)

April 29, 2020

residency collaboration
Intersectional Climate Justice with the RawMinds Ambassadors for Wellcome Collection

Over a few months, I worked with the Wellcome Collection's youth group the RawMinds Ambassadors aged 14-19 to introduce the ideas that shape intersectional climate justice - how overlapping challenges such as social, disability and racial justice issues, are all interconnected and influenced by the changing climate. Through my weekly series of activities and exercises, we explored different areas of the youths' own concerns and experiences of the issues - all also in the frame of living through the first pandemic lockdowns. To culminate the programme, the youth group collectively created apublic panel talk for other young people to explore the globally uneven climate impacts of food, ‘sustainable’ fashion and futures.(April 23, 2020 → September 23, 2020)

April 23, 2020

workshop youth group
From West to East: Re-Locating a Speculative Centre Writing Published with Ama Josephine Budge for MIT Press and Whitechapel Gallery's Science Fiction

I was invited to contribute to the Science Fiction edition of the Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art series, and with a preference to co-author, I in turn invited Ama Josephine Budge to collaborate with me. Together we co-wrote an article of the conversation we had at Iniva and the Stuart Hall Library on speculative fictions. The publication, edited by Dan Byrne-Smith, is 'the first major anthology to focus on relationships between science fiction and contemporary art, with topics ranging from accelerating technological change to global urbanization.' Unfortunately the press and editor erased my name from the credits, and mistitled our article to misname our co-authorship.

April 14, 2020

writing / publication collaboration science fiction
[Export_Explode> Artwork Commission for Metal Culture and Estuary 2021 at Wat Tyler Country Park

I was commissioned by Metal Culture to create an artwork that responds to the sites for Estuary 2021 (originally Estuary 2020, postponed due to the pandemic). During the artwork commission, I researched into former Pitsea Explosives Factory on the Thames Estuary. It produced munitions at the height of the Industrial Revolution, and is at the site of Wat Tyler Country Park, which is now an RSPB bird watching nature reserve. I created a video essay highlighting this history and the contradictions of the histories of extraction and of the British Empire alongside contemporary access to nature, all considering a climate justice approach. See more about [Export_Explode> on my artwork post. (March 18, 2020 → June 12, 2021)

March 18, 2020

artwork exhibited in
Art, Poetry and the Environment Talk for CIEE Global Institute

For a second year undergraduate course called 'Nature and Culture in Transnational Perspective', I delivered a talk on the artistic response to climate change through my own creative practice and collaborations. Co-speaker Awa Ndiaye shared her own poetry relating to the environment, and we shared a panel discussion for students to ask more about our research themes and methodolgies to engage wider audiences.

March 13, 2020

talk teaching
Climate Knowledges Curation Exhibition at MAMA in Rotterdam and Online

I was commissioned to guest curate an exhibition for MAMA (Showroom for Media and Moving Art), on the Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam about my research in climate change and justice. I framed the concepts around speculative fictions, histories and everyday knowledges of climate change across cultures and geographies. Invited exhibitors were Annie Mackinnon, Josèfa Ntjam and Regina Kanyu Wang with Tessa Qiu, and the local activists to form the Climate Visual Cultures Library. 'Through speculative ways of storytelling, from ancient mythologies to futuristic science fictions, we confront the colonial and patriarchal origins, and their exploitative processes, that produced the current climate crisis.' (March 7, 2020 → July 03, 2020)

March 7, 2020

curation

2019

Gentle Strategising Curation with the MAMA Poule at MAMA in Rotterdam

The Creator Roundtable Talk for the LSFRC Conference Beyond Border

Climate Change and Contemporary Chinese Science and Speculative Fiction Talk for LSFRC Conference 2020: Beyond Borders

Hypericum: A Code of Practice Co-Research with Obsidian Coast

Common Ground Briefing Talk for Arts Admin's Season for Change

Climate: Articulated Knowledges and Speculative Stories Talk for MA Illustration: Authorial Practice at University of Falmouth

In Conversation: Changing Realities and Speculative Fictions in the work of Cao Fei - Writing Published with Science Fiction Writers Gu Shi and Regina Kanyu Wang for Serpentine Galleries London

Relearning the History of Climate Change Interview for MAMA Rotterdam

Futures of Waste: Articulated Knowledges and Speculative Stories Lecture for AA x ICA

Climate Knowledges Curation Exhibited at MAMA Rotterdam Now An Online Game

Myco-Lective Residency with Feral Practice and Chisenhale Studios

Intersectional Climate Justice with the RawMinds Ambassadors for Wellcome Collection

From West to East: Re-Locating a Speculative Centre Writing Published with Ama Josephine Budge for MIT Press and Whitechapel Gallery's Science Fiction

[Export_Explode> Artwork Commission for Metal Culture and Estuary 2021 at Wat Tyler Country Park

Art, Poetry and the Environment Talk for CIEE Global Institute

Climate Knowledges Curation Exhibition at MAMA in Rotterdam and Online

Connecting with Climate Arts in East Asia with the Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) Award from Arts Council England

Decolonising Design: Curating an Intersectional Climate Movement Talk and Workshop for Friday Lates: Anthropocene at V&A Museum

General Ecology Consultation with Serpentine Galleries and Brian Eno

Environmental Ethics Talk at CIEE Global Institute