30 Jun 25 Monday Briefing

Seapunk and Chiang Mai updates

Ahoy, friends! Apologies for the late Monday night briefing, but I’ve been juggling jet lag (basically I had a toddler’s sleep schedule this past week), work, and… Seapunk, which readers of this newsletter will know is my passion project and what keeps me busy when work doesn’t.

Long-time friend Sam Chua and founding curator of Seapunk Studios is organising and running a Midsummer Studio from 12-20 July, and we’d love to meet any Chiang Mai-based folks in our Substack network, or even better, have them join us in playful reimaginations!

Sam and I will also be presenting our paper, “Imaginary Decolonization: Seapunk & The Search For Authentic Southeast Asian Solarpunk Futures” at Chiang Mai University’s Decolonizing Southeast Asian Studies academic conference from 17-19 July, which was the original impetus for us extending our trip north to include Seapunk Season 0 alumni and new friends who have joined us along the way.

This paper’s thesis draws inspiration from the four vectors of root reimaginations that were birthed at Season 0, and provides tangible examples of the worlds that can be built if only we push ourselves to reimagine, for the better.

If anyone is interested in a personal recap of Seapunk Season 0, please do read

Yan

’s. I don’t think anything I could write would come close.

See some of you soon in Chiang Mai, hopefully!