"Silent Echoes: From Forest to Dust" by Jakob van Klang, exhibited at Tin Alley, Malaysia

Artivism in Southeast Asia:

Imagining Anthropocene Futures

Aims and Objectives

This project explores the power of "artivism" in driving environmental communication, education, and activism across Southeast Asia. In a region where biodiversity and carbon sink hotspots are under threat from rapid economic development and patronage politics, top-down conservation efforts often fall short. Creative resistance from civil society is urgently needed to challenge extractive, production-driven environmental harm.

Collaborating with Jakob van Klang, a Malaysia-based artist and curator, this project investigates how art captures and depicts environmental changes in Southeast Asia, navigating a heavily regulated civil space, and empowering creators and viewers to imagine desirable futures. We will explore the impact of art on fostering environmental awareness and action.

In this fellowship, we will:

Conduct surveys and semi-structured interviews with environmental art exhibition-goers and artists
Organise an in-person workshop between artists and civil society to identify mutual learning and collaborative pathways for effective and creative environmental communication, public education, and activism
Organise a public-facing forum to share our research findings on the intersection of art, education, and activism.

In completing these activities, we aim to produce both academic and non-academic publications on the power of environmental art in Southeast Asia, and to foster deeper collaboration between scholars and artists to harness the transformative power of art to inspire collective action for a sustainable future.

If you’re an artist working in the environmental art space in Southeast Asia and would like to get in touch to collaborate on this or future projects, please fill out this Google form.

Project Outputs

This project explored the intersection of environmental activism, art, and education through a transnational collaboration between partners in the UK and Malaysia. Over 200 surveys and 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with visitors and artists involved in The Future of Anthropocene exhibition, providing valuable insights into public and artistic engagement with environmental themes. Two in-person workshops were held in May and June 2025 - one in Malaysia and one in York, bringing together artists and civil society participants to exchange ideas and practices. In addition, a public-facing forum in Malaysia attracted over 60 attendees and provided a platform to share emerging research findings on environmental artivism.

One academic paper on environmental art-activism has been published, with at least two more manuscripts in preparation. Further funding proposals are in development to support the project's evolution into other artistic forms, including performance and music. A new network on environmental artivism has also been established, supported by YESI, with a launch event planned for 2026. The project has attracted media attention, including a feature on Malaysia’s national radio station BFM and coverage on the ArtRabbit blog.

The initial funding was instrumental in bringing together a team of researchers and artists who might not otherwise have had the opportunity to collaborate. It also laid the foundation for a growing UK–Malaysia network focused on environmental artivism. Work is now underway to distil insights from the workshops into accessible outputs for both academic and public audiences, supporting future research, creative practice, and funding bids.

A co-authored new paper exploring the new phenomenon of art-based activism, otherwise known as "artivism”, offering the first analysis of the role ‘artivism’ plays in the public environmental discourse in a non-Western context.

Felicia H. M. Liu, Helena Varkkey, Thomas E. L. Smith, Peter Reynolds, Pattrawut Pusingha, Haoying Li, Simran Bungar Artivism for Cleaner Air? An Exploration of the Artistic Representation of “Haze” in Southeast Asia. Journal: Environmental Communication.

BFM Podcast 'Artivism for Conservation'

Image shows Dr Thomas Smith, Associate Professor; Environmental Geography, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, Dr Felicia Liu, Lecturer in Sustainability, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Jakob van Klang, Curator; Multidisciplinary Artist, KL Sketch Nation & Art Rabbit standing next to each other in a corridor

Guests: Dr Thomas Smith, Associate Professor; Environmental Geography, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, Dr Felicia Liu, Lecturer in Sustainability, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Jakob van Klang, Curator; Multidisciplinary Artist, KL Sketch Nation & Art Rabbit

News story: Environmental Artivism takes central stage in Kuala Lumpur

Group of people stood together in front of a presentation screen - team photo

News Story: Artivism in Action - Public Forum to Explore the Power of Environmental Art in Driving Change

Principal and Co-Investigators

Principal Investigator

Felicia Liu, Department of Environment and Geography

Co-Investigators

Christopher Lyon, Department of Environment and Geography

Catherine Love-Smith, School of Arts and Creative Technologies

External Collaborators

Thomas Smith (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Helena Varkkey (Universiti Malaya)
Jakob van Klang