School of Tomorrow

ASTRI NURSALIM (AN): The approach came from the graphic we developed for the exhibition. We wanted it to look bright and cheerful, which tallies with the overall message of School of Tomorrow. Rather than being preachy and scaring people with warnings of a grim future, we wanted the overall messaging to be hopeful. We wanted people to not only learn about the issues, but to see the solutions from our partners as well, so they would walk out of the exhibition feeling like they can contribute in many ways.

GIAN JONATHAN (GJ): Being in the visual communications industry, we were mindful about how we packaged School of Tomorrow. We needed to make environmental issues approachable so people would be willing to go in and interact with the exhibition. Although we added so-called packaging, the content was very real. We presented the problems as they are. We also presented current solutions as the small steps that we can take to tackle those issues.

PANN LIM (PL): Fun and light-hearted doesn’t mean frivolous. It’s about engaging people. The topic of sustainability is discussed over and over again and people might think, “Oh, it’s that same story again.” If we gave it a new spin that people would find engaging, they’d want to find out more.

GJ: School is something most people can relate to. Using school as a vehicle tied in very well with the overall concept, because it created an opportunity for learning about climate and environmental issues. We kept all the subjects you’d expect at school, but with a twist. In mathematics class, for example, you would learn how to calculate your carbon footprint and what you could do to offset it. It was familiar, but also not familiar.

PL: The first hurdle is making people stop to read. Then the rest will follow. We did not design School of Tomorrow as a place of teaching. Instead, we wanted to engage students on a journey of learning, because change can only come about when we internalise the lessons.

AN: The [Not-So] Convenience Store gave us a base of knowledge about how people are tackling issues. When we built that showcase, we had different touchpoints such as the jingle, the uniforms, and the various parts of the store. It was good groundwork for thinking about the different touchpoints the school could have.

PL: It comes back to the methodology of how we presented the project. The exterior format came first. The [Not-So] Convenience Store; firstly, what a name! Why is a convenience store inconvenient? That was the hook, and the whole design direction followed in the style of a convenience store. That premise already made it engaging.

Likewise, for School of Tomorrow, the school format was a vehicle for us to push the sustainability message. If you were to present a project about sustainability with the word “green” in the title, people would be more likely to think it might be boring. We looked for platforms that were more engaging. Once people go in and connect with the concept, you have engaged your audience.

There were also the more granular considerations. How do you lead visitors from Room A to B to C? How do you create a different experience in each room? How do you put a twist on the different curriculum subjects? Once people walk in, they need to feel that they’re within the experience, that they’re really in a school.

On top of that, we had very knowledgeable gallery sitters. We received a lot of feedback about this. They were all young people. We gave them a catalogue to read about the subject matter, but all of them went on and did further research. I overheard some of them talking to the visitors about their personal experiences as well. This is a topic close to their heart, so they wanted to put more into it. Actually, everyone who was involved in the project read up and contributed to our collective findings. None of us were trained in this subject but we all shared information.

AN: We started out by conceptualising the different subjects and deciding what each class would be about. Then we spent around six months conducting research online and talking to people who offer various solutionsto environmental problems, such as new materials. The whole Kinetic team was involved. We then went back to the content to consider whether there were other ways of structuring it.

PL: Yes, a key question was, “How do we present the content in a classroom format without being too boring?”

GJ: People shared valuable insights about the challenges associated with these new kinds of materials. While all of these materials are good, they sometimes lack aesthetic appeal. Not everything looks so nice. I recall one of the producers saying, “We have a good material, but designers are not using it in a way that makes it seem desirable.” Hence, they could not scale.

AN: We made merchandise for the second edition of School of Tomorrow so people could see the materials applied to products. Visitors could purchase the products to take home with them. Of course, we added our design touch too.

PL: We allowed people to touch the exhibits, so they could find out what cassava or seaweed plastic feel like. Some of those plastics are pretty fragile because they are still being researched and they haven’t achieved strength and durability yet. We had to replace them every two or three days. But we took this approach because we know that tactility is important.

In another part of the exhibition, people could participate by placing wireless tracking tokens on a chart to calculate their overall carbon footprint. In another area, we had textile replacements, such as pineapple fabric, that people could touch. I think that tactility contributed a lot to the overall experience.

We are part of this ongoing process of understanding the materials. Because they are new materials, they might not have undergone very rigorous testing yet. We are happy to be part of the process and learn along the way.

AN: We tried to make it as sustainable as we could. Almost all the props were second-hand.

PL: We also borrowed items from friends. We would only buy something new in circumstances where we couldn’t find it second-hand.

AN: For some items, we couldn’t find a viable alternative to a less sustainable material, so we took responsibility for their afterlife. After the second edition of School of Tomorrow, a preschool took the Styrofoam planets from our physics classroom to use as decorations. We had a public Google form to allow people to adopt items from the exhibition, and almost everything was taken.

After the exhibition closed, we reused some of the materials in our office. So now, when we host clients, we can show them a real-life application. The table and shelves in our conference room are examples.

PL: The other thing we tried to do was reduce energy consumption. We followed the National Environment Agency’s guideline for air conditioning. We set the temperature for the exhibition at 25^oC, which is one or two degrees warmer than most people are used to. Some people mentioned that the place was not very cold, but we explained it as part of the exhibition narrative.

For the second edition, we needed to build more panels, so we worked with a builder who has projects within the photography and film industry. They came back afterwards to collect the panels so they could use them as backdrops.

GJ: Yes, it was a significant component. We identified social media as one of the channels for attracting people to the exhibition because it has wide reach and we could strategise different types of content to target different audience groups. We posted different content on social media, such as a quiz or homework that people could do. It served as an extension of the exhibition itself.

We did consider the photography aspect when we were designing the space. For example, we positioned a chair in the biology classroom so that visitors could take a photo of themselves studying there. We wanted to encourage people to spread the word. Of course, nowadays, if people enjoy something, they’ll share it on social media. So, we prepared our exhibition space to be social media-ready.

GJ: I really enjoyed seeing a group of preschoolers come to visit. You’re never too young to start learning. They had fun discovering new things, like how insects are an alternative source of protein. Experiences like eating bugs are really memorable.

AN: One of the preschools I hosted at the exhibition was the one that my child attends. It was very heartwarming for me to see their excitement and happy reactions to School of Tomorrow. Later on, when I went down to the preschool, the kids remembered me and called me “Mother Earth”! They wanted to tell me about all the solutions they remembered from the exhibition, like cassava plastic and mushrooms. I feel like we managed to speak to the future generations.

PL: What was most memorable for me was when someone from Bangkok came to see the exhibition after discovering it on social media. She was already enthusiastic about the topic and she wanted to find out more. I was happy to see this kind of traction.

AN: We’ve received a lot of enquiries, which has been really heartening. One of the major stumbling blocks is that the enquiries often come from countries where labour is cheaper, so it’s hard to balance costs. We hope to eventually move School of Tomorrow to an online space. We just want to keep it alive so it can continue to serve as a platform for education about these issues.