Centre for Art, Science and Biocultural Ecologies
The Centre for Art, Science and Biocultural Ecologies is a new cross-College centre dedicated to examining how biological, cultural, and technological worlds intersect. Through artistic practice, scientific inquiry, and humanistic methods, the Centre explores how environments, ecosystems, cultures, and creative expression co-evolve.
The Centre succeeds the Nanyang Technological University Centre for Contemporary Art. This transition reflects the direction the former Centre has taken in recent years, with increasing focus on environmental futures, biocultural approaches, curation as research, and interdisciplinary experimentation.
The Centre seeks to position NTU and Singapore as regional leaders in art-science research on environmental futures and biocultural knowledge. We aim to build a platform where creative practice, cultural inquiry, and scientific insight meet to shape more sustainable, imaginative, and equitable worlds.
A. Key Themes
- Environmental change and cultural resilience
- Art-science collaborations
- Sustainability, biodiversity, and ecological storytelling
- Artistic and curatorial practice as research
- Community-engaged and regionally grounded ecological work
B. A Major Milestone
The Centre will host the Max Planck–Nanyang Technological University Centre for Biocultural Worlding, launching in January 2026. This will be the first Max Planck centre in the humanities in Asia. It brings together leading scholars from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and creative and scientific communities in Singapore.
C. Activities
- Artist residencies and curatorial labs
- Collaborations with Singapore’s arts and cultural sector
- Field-based ecological and ethnographic projects
- Public exhibitions and community programmes
- Cross-disciplinary teaching modules
- Research partnerships across NTU’s Colleges and Schools