The young generation & their view on the ocean — the LJM Here on Earth project on display at the National Museum of Natural Science
The Here On Earth project was launched in 2020 amidst the darkest hours of the COVID-19-triggered lockdowns around the world. In an effort and attempt to break through the isolation and despair brought on by the lockdowns, urban artists and media educators from three metropolises surrounded by waters - Taipei, New York, and London - began to team up. With the support of the LJM University for Life & Peace and the Young Voice Network of Fubon Cultural & Educational Foundation, the Here On Earth project got off the launching pad as an online media training program with emphasis on oceanic education and cross-cultural communication. The current exhibition at the Naturalist Center of the Science Museum is seen as the climax of the project that is of great significance to both the participants and the project organizer.
Chih-Yu Lu, curator of the exhibition at the Naturalist Center of the Science Museum, pointed out that the museum serves the purpose of promoting science education and it is most befitting and meaningful that the exhibit zooms in on environmental education and climate change. The Naturalist Center makes efforts to offer a milieu conducive to self-learning and exploration, and thus it finds strong connection to the Here On Earth project for guiding young people to soul-searching, exploring environmental issues, and caring about ecology. The exhibit of ‘An Island’s Sea-facing Chronicle’ has thus been born out of ideas shared in common by all parties involved.
The Creation was an Outreach of Help to Heal both the Others and Oneselves
Student participant Chiu Wen-Chen’s work, Marine Therapy, strives to achieve healing. She always associates the oceans with healing. Her part-time work got her to witness many children from underprivileged, single-parent households. She always hoped the children would make drawings of unpleasant childhood memories and send bottled letters adrift to symbolize soul-healing by enlisting help from the oceans to engulf all bad childhood memories. She ran reality checks multiple times and modified versions of her plan to finally give birth to the work that shows how young folks explore their inner world for self-healing with the help of the ocean.
The young members who played main characters of the video discovered that their involvement with the project brought sea change to their lives. They told stories of their past that they’d rather throw away. They tried to abandon the symbolic objects for ritualistic reconciliation that heals wounds and stops hurts. One of the main characters retrieved a sea-shell that represented a manifestation of a dear friendship with her bosom girl-friend of 7 years. Upon reclaiming the shell, she decided to amend the cracked relationship. Chiu Wen-Chen said that she also realized that the video originally had a storyline to help heal others, but the shooting process enabled quite a bit of the innermost thoughts and ideas to surface and become an integral part of the video. Some stubborn attachment, for example, and the injustice experienced were ultimately dissolved in the process and an unexpected self-healing emerged.
To Chiu, her biggest gain with the Here On Earth project was the widening of her international horizon and elevation of her vision. She realized that peers of the same age bracket are concerned with widely different issues of marine ecology ranging from pollution, overharvesting, coral reefs on the brink of extinction, eruption of submarine volcanoes, to even burials at sea. She realized how diversified and fun the ocean could turn out to be.
Heart to heart at seashore, a father-son dialogue upgraded to mutual understanding
Another film, Source of Growth, by Peng Kai-Chi tells the story of how a father-son relation develops and grows. Peng said that his Dad used to bring him along for beach cleaning events which he recalls fondly. He still has vivid recollection of his Dad walking in the sun, wearing placate as a Google sandwichman. Hence he opted for the ocean for location to shoot a documentary that explores father-son relations, believing that conversations are made easy by the sea, and words can be poured out from the heart.
‘I remain deeply impressed by the scene when we talked on the algal reef. Dad looked into my eyes while speaking in a tone that was soothing and not like his usual authoritative style. It was for that moment that I felt we were communicating as equals,’ said Peng. As for Peng’s father, who also participated in the making of the video, became more understanding of the son’s creative enthusiasm and determination. Peng revealed that his father has turned around to become positive about his decision to pursue image creation as a future endeavor. The father’s comment that there is a champion for each and every trade came across as an encouragement that touched Peng dearly.
Peng said that the exhibition literally put his inner world on public display and he concurs that there is a host of means for self-expression, such as painting, literature, and imagery as well. And, to him, imagery is the medium he excels at. It puts him right in his comfort zone to be able to communicate with parties interested in his work, and to have a discourse about creatives and creativity.
The 6-week exhibition has attracted visitors from all over. Ms. Hsu, for example, gives the event a thumbs-up on accounts that it fully demonstrates that education can be diverse and young people could enjoy unbridled imagination. Moreover, she added, the international exchanges helped to broaden the young people’s horizons. Another visitor surnamed Wu otherwise saw the legacy of environmental activists in the videos which impressed him a lot. He is convinced that the spirit of environmental protection will be maintained by these young supporters.
Adolescence is the formative years for one to form opinions and beliefs. The youth have their vision and sensitivity. What they see is not always perceived by the adults. The Here On Earth media camp is a project that helps sharpen young people’s senses for better connectivity with the world to the extent that they ultimately identify themselves as an integral part of the Earth. Accordingly, the project is a deep-rooting effort that echoes what Master Hsin Tao has stressed - a spiritual ecology based on the oneness for all forms of existence. The Naturalist Center of the Science Museum also offers guided tours at irregular intervals so that visitors have an opportunity to interact in person with the video producers. The exchange of creative ideas actually brings environmental awareness closer to our daily life.