Lecture: Under the Volcano: Living With/Against Earth's Processes

In this lecture, we ask how living in proximity to volcanoes is shaped with, by, and at times against Earth’s processes.

By turning to geological terrains as protagonists—understanding them as earth-building fissures, and in various cultural and spiritual traditions, as guardians—we ask how living in proximity to these terrains is shaped with, by, and at times against Earth’s processes. Beginning with Artist Ng Hui Hsien, she contemplates on photography and art installations as portals to imperceptible landforms, which enact their own agency, sustain their own microclimates, and determine what can or cannot be perceived. These landforms, in turn, animate social lives. Drawing from both previous and recent works, she also looks to the visual medium as a catalyst—a proxy for sensing forces larger than oneself, shaping perceptions, and re-establishing kinship. Professor Simon Redfern examines the crystalline structures that form beneath volcanic terrains. As a mineralogist and crystallographer, he reveals how atomic-scale mineral architectures record volcanic processes and Earth's deep carbon cycle. Each crystal represents a frozen moment of geological time, encoding the thermal and chemical conditions of its formation. Beyond their extractive value, these minerals serve as archives of dynamic Earth systems, showing how volcanoes participate in climate regulation over deep time through both degassing and the subsequent weathering of volcanic rocks. Moderated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer, this lecture considers: How do these distinct methods offer different understandings of materiality—one grounded in lived, perceptual time, the other in Earth's deep time—and what emerges when these temporalities are placed in conversation? The title's allusion to Malcolm Lowry's novel reminds us that living "under the volcano" is as much about psychological and cultural reckoning as it is about geological reality.

Tuesday Lecture

24 February 2026, 6:30pm – 8:30pm

The Hall, NTU CCA, Blk 6 Lock Road, #01-10 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108934

Image credit: Mount Batur, Bali. Image by Ng Hui Hsien.

The Climate Transformation: Sustainable Societies Series is organised by members of the Climate Transformation Programme (CTP) Cross-Cutting Theme 1: Sustainable Societies research team, Principal Investigator Professor Ute Meta Bauer, research fellow Joshua Gebert, research associate Ng Mei Jia and research assistant Angela Ricasio Hoten.

Sustainable Societies

Principal Investigator, Professor Ute Meta Bauer (NTU ADM)

Principal Investigator, Associate Professor Laura Miotto (NTU ADM)

Principal Investigator, Professor Dr Thomas Schroepfer (SUTD)

This Lecture Series is supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 3 grant [MOE-MOET32022-0006] for the Climate Transformation Programme.

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Speakers

Ng Hui Hsien works as an artist, educator, and curator. Through her artworks, she seeks to evoke stillness and wonder, especially towards our inner landscapes and the more-than-human world. Her work is informed by phenomenology, one that sees our bodies as sites of knowledge and one curious about our relations with the living earth. Ng has received solo exhibitions at Objectifs Centre of Photography and Film, Singapore (2023), Grey Projects, Singapore (2020-2021), Comma Space, Singapore (2020), and Reykjavík Museum of Photography, Iceland (2018-2019). She holds a Master of Arts in Photography from University of the West of England and a Master of Social Sciences from National University of Singapore

Simon Redfern is a Professor at the Asian School of Environment and President's Chair in Earth Sciences at NTU, where he previously served as Dean of the College of Science. He serves as Principal Investigator on Research Cluster 3: Climate Mitigation, under the Climate Transformation Programme. A mineralogist and crystallographer, his research explores the atomic-scale structures of Earth materials and their physical and chemical properties—from oceanic minerals to the planet's deep interior. His work spans from understanding how crystal structures respond to extreme conditions, to investigating subduction zones as potential geological carbon sinks, contributing to our understanding of Earth's carbon cycle and climate regulation over deep time.

Moderator

Ute Meta Bauer is a Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU), and Acting Director and Principal Research Fellow at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore). Having served as the Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore for over a decade, her work as educator and curator over the past years has focused on Climates. Habitats. Environments. Her current research projects include Climate Transformation Programme: Sustainable Societies Research Cluster (2024–Present), Developing and Evaluating Digital Tools for Participatory Climate Change Mitigation (2025–Present) and previously, Climate Crisis and Cultural Loss (2021–2024)