
Sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch are the five senses through which we assemble reality. They shape attention and memory, guide instinct and interpretation, and quietly determine what feels familiar, threatening, or safe.
Alongside them is a less visible sixth sense, often described as interoception. It reminds us that perception is not only external, but also internal, and that what we cannot easily name can still shape how we feel, focus, and function.
Artists are often attuned to these sensory registers. This sensitivity becomes an impetus to create, not as self-expression alone, but as a method for inquiry: translating felt experience into form, and making perception legible through material, media, and structure. Interoception is only one example of the many ways perception can operate. In a neurodiverse world, there are countless other variations in how attention, sensation, and meaning are processed and expressed.
Now in its seventh edition, our hybrid Forum includes livestreamed presentations, performances, and dialogue to inspire an exploration of Southeast Asian arts and its discourses; facilitating an exchange of knowledge from the community to the classroom and vice versa.
Read MoreMavericks in their fields and unconventional thinkers from diverse creative and academic backgrounds, these Southeast Asian artists, educators, and creative practitioners bring to the forum pressing issues, emerging ideas, and potential alternatives in response to the region's evolving social, cultural, and artistic landscape.

The Institute of Southeast Asian Arts was established in April 2010 with the aim of developing the capabilities of NAFA in the niche area of art being practiced in the region and to run a research and resource development agency within NAFA. ISEAA focuses on practice-led research; it is activity-based to benefit students and faculty primarily through workshops. The Institute also forms a network of different partners in Singapore and the Southeast Asian region to represent the spectrum of visual, performing and management arts and to formulate broad-based collaborative projects with individuals and groups of artists.
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