Live & Learn

The Tuyang Initiative describe themselves as a community-led arts management company, with a dream. Established in 2017, this Miri-based award-winning social enterprise is focused on Dayak cultural heritage, and aims to generate meaningful livelihoods for cultural custodians, and lead efforts in its continuity. This is done by facilitating capacity building and participation into the creative and cultural industries through strategic industry partnerships. Founded by father -daughter team John Wan Usang and Juvita Tatan Wan, the team also want their culture and traditions to continue well into the future – and thrive. The team have been invited to perform at the World Music & Dance Festival in Japan in August 2024, and are currently raising funds to get there. We speak to Juvita to find out more about their work and plans. 

Image credit: The Tuyang Initiative

The Cipta Seni Incubator is a new artist development programme for performance artists based in Malaysia. It’s a three-month artist development programme in Malaysia in which participants will receive guidance and feedback on their work. There will be mentorship and workshops, culminating in a live event where participants will get to showcase their work-in-progress to an audience. The programme will be running from May to September this year.  We speak to Sharmilla Ganesan and Tom Curteis, Co-Founders, Cipta Seni Incubator.

A Malaysian filmmaker currently based in Chicago, Jean Ho has been working on directing and producing an animated docuseries called 'Invisible People', which highlights Malaysia's stateless and refugee communities. Set to be released sometime in May this year, the documentary explores why citizenship should be a fundamental right rather than a government-mandated privilege, and why stateless and refugee communities deserve access to basic rights like education, affordable healthcare, and a stable income, as other Malaysians do. We find out more about this animated documentary series, and how Jean hopes to enact big and small changes through the stories showcased in the film.

Image credit: Invisible People

What does a gallery, museum, and cafe look like when all rolled into one space? That’s what Harta Space is, as an initiative by Habib Jewels to feature local artists as well as the unique heritage of Peranakan jewellery in its museum. Here to share more about what they do is Harta’s director, Mirsham Meer. 

Image credit: Habib Jewels

What is it like working with visual effects if you were colourblind? Some of us might think it’ll be extremely difficult, if not impossible but McLelun Lee has shown that it can be done. Currently the director of the R&D Studio, a creative content studio, he joins us to share more about his journey from a game developer to being a filmmaker and the work he and his team are doing.  

Gene Eu is a Malaysian artist whose interests and dedication lie with sustainability and conservation. His artistic journey has taken him from Santa Monica to rural North Carolina in the US, to back home here in Malaysia, where he is currently focusing on new art techniques and sustainable farming methods to promote harmony between agriculture and wildlife in the region. He joins us to share more about how these different environments have influenced his work and perspective, and we also discuss his body of works featured in Things That Move, which is an art exhibition happening at The Godown KL, that celebrates Malaysia's rich biodiversity, and which features a series of paintings of wildlife mammals. 

Image credit: The Godown

Taylor Swift became the latest high-profile woman to become the target of AI-generated online sexual abuse, when explicit deepfake photos of her were created and went viral across social media platforms. In her case, it was quickly taken down but what about other women who don’t have the kind of publicity and influence that she has? We speak to Dr Dyah Pitaloka, a senior lecturer in communications & media studies to find out how emerging technologies, especially generative AI, is disproportionately harming women and whether there is a solution to this growing problem. 

Image credit: Shutterstock

Can children's literature spark conversations around sustainability, health, and social issues? These were the questions posed for the Jom Kita Bincang! (Let’s talk about it!) project, which was spearheaded by the Embassy of Sweden in Malaysia, together with the Raja Tun Uda Library, and the Malaysia Board on Books for Young People. The impact of Swedish children's literature on global kids' books has been significant, and over time has moved from "watered-down” or “preachy" to instead encourage children to be thinkers, to dream and to ask questions about the world, with a focus on the “child’s perspective.” We speak to His Excellency Dr Joachim Bergström, the Ambassador of Sweden to Malaysia, and Ingrid Källström, a pedagogue and librarian, to discuss the importance and profound impact of Swedish tales on young readers worldwide, and also to find out more about the events offered for Malaysians through the Jom Kita Bincang! project.

Junior Achievement (JA) Asia Pacific - an arm of JA Worldwide – is an Non-Profit focused on empowering youth through education, financial literacy and entrepreneurship programmes to get young people ready for the future. 

We speak to Maziar Sabet, President and CEO of JA Asia Pacific on the NGO and their upcoming Company of the Year competition.

Image credit: JA Asia Pacific

In April 2023, Malaysia passed the bill for the mandatory death penalty to be repealed, marking a significant step forward for human rights advocates. But that is only the first step towards the complete abolishment of the death penalty in Malaysia, which can still be handed down for several crimes. We speak to Katrina Jorene Maliamauv of Amnesty International Malaysia on the need to push for a complete abolition of the death penalty. 

Image credit: Shutterstock