Exploring how new digital modes of research, communication and presentation might allow for the bridging of distances and the intimating of proximities. And perhaps more importantly, how a place such as Singapore - birthed for the facilitation of globalisation – might continue to be seen. If Forests Talk 2022 (IFT22) is the second edition of the SAW 2021 online project (https://ifforeststalk.com) that homes in on the tropical rainforests of Singapore, placing its focus upon the early histories of the disciplines of botany and natural history.

The early methodologies of these disciplines were often practised by the West remotely from their subjects, relying upon the study of specimens and literature instead of fieldwork. With the continued disruption to global travel, IFT22 explores the parallels between the current modes of grounded/remote artmaking and these past disciplinary practices. 

Exploring how new digital modes of research, communication and presentation might allow for the bridging of distances and the intimating of proximities. And perhaps more importantly, how a place such as Singapore - birthed for the facilitation of globalisation – might continue to be seen and imagined from both within and out in this current moment of rootedness.d imagined from both within and out in this new moment of rootedness.

Image Credit: Weixin Chong, Humic Moods

Artist List: Weixin Chong (SG), Shahila Baharom (ila) (SG), Marjet Zwaans (NL), Jonathan Castro (PE/NL)