Global Experience Bandung/Yogyakarta Study Trip 2024 - sharing

I had the wonderful opportunity to embark on a Global Experience (GEx) study trip to Bandung and Yogyakarta, Indonesia, with a professor and fellow students from NUS College. The study trip spanned one month (half a month in each city) and comprised visits to houses and studios of prominent local artists, hikes to notable landmarks of the areas, a street art biking tour, student consultations, and student-initiated trips. I was attracted to this study trip by the theme of creative city development. I have always been fascinated by the arts and the question of how we can use the arts to address the social problems in the city. That is a question that has intrigued me for a very long time, long before the trip. Whenever I read a book or observed a painting, I have always wondered if the arts can be more than a medium for self-expression. What if the arts were used as a form of non-verbal language to discuss and dissect social problems?

Before I continue with my reflections, I would like to express my gratitude to the National University of Singapore, NUS College, and other donors, for supporting my enrollment in this study trip.

The trip has introduced me to different artistic practices in Bandung and Yogyakarta, from traditional forms such as wayang and jaipong dances to contemporary arts. I have read many theories about the roles and purposes of arts – some of which argued for a single unifying purpose of arts. The trip has supplemented me with plenty of experiences and empirical evidence for the multiplicity of meanings that arts offer, pitching against the textbook notion of arts.

Some may not see a connection between the major I am pursuing and the theme of this GEx study trip. I don’t quite agree. I believe that there should not be a cleavage between different fields of study. Even though sciences and arts appear to have different methodologies and intentions (some may even consider the arts to be of less worth than the sciences), sciences and arts are, to me, a matter of shifting perspectives and being reflexive. Much as scientific experiments give evidence to conjectures about the nature of the physical world, the arts convey the experiences of humans living in the physical world. The study trip has shown me how artistic practices can be used as a participatory medium to convey the message of protecting the environment in Cigondewah, inviting the local community to participate in the conversation about environmentalism. The artist uses his works as a form of activism, drawing attention to social issues faced by his local community and Indonesia at large. As a science student, I have witnessed how many discussions about protecting the environment are limited to the four walls of the auditorium, whilst the local community that can give us many insights and perspectives is often ignored in an academic culture. This imbalance of opportunity to participate in the social discourse concerning protecting local environment has led me to wonder, can artists and scientists work together to engage public discussion on these matters, breaking open to four walls of academia? Is this approach more effective than a prescription approach (scientists and policy makers write policies "asking" the community to adopt such policies, similar to how a doctor prescribes medicine to a patient) commonly followed by many communities?

Apart from the visit to the artist house at Cigondewah and observing how arts is being used to draw attention to the social problems faced by the local community, another moment that greatly demanded reflections and provoked thoughts was the visit to the plastic recycling factory. From the visit to a plastic recycling factory, I have come to realise the potential insidious effects of Science on society, especially when scientists are driven by profits and become less “careful” in publishing their results. At the plastic recycling factory, there was a high level of air, water, land, and noise pollution. This factory sorted, cleaned, and mechanically broke plastic down into tiny pellets for further use. That factory recycled plastics from not only Indonesia, but also abroad. At schools, I am often taught to reduce, reuse, and recycle products that contain plastic. And as a student, I often think plastic recycling is the way to be “sustainable”. Yet, visiting the plastic factory, I cannot help but wonder if recycling plastic is as sustainable as the discourse often circulates in society. Can laying waste on landfills, polluting the air, using water to wash and cool down machinery, to recycle plastic, be considered a way to “protect” the environment? It was even more aching to see how a convenient material such as plastic has become a plague to the world – and this plague has infiltrated almost every aspect of society. It, still, baffles me what exactly has turned a brilliant scientific project of plastic synthesis into a source of contamination and pollution.

June 2025, Vietnam.

Acknowledgement: I want to thank Michelle Zhuo for the conversations regarding the roles of arts and sciences in society during and after the study trip.