Ugrid Jomyim
Abstract :
This creative project is a collaboration between social science concepts and the concept of creating contemporary photographic art. It was applied to the study and recording of the community area of Nong Sai Subdistrict, Dan Khun Thot District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. The researcher found that in this area, people have come out to fight for their rights that they should have from being affected by the Potash mining factory.
Objectives :
- To present the issues in the Ban Nong Sai community through the artistic process of photography and visual media.
- To integrate knowledge from the social sciences into creative photographic work, enhancing the depth and relevance of the issues reflected in the community.
Conceptual Framework :
This project aims to bring sociology and anthropology into the creative work process to present the problems that occur in the Ban Nong Sai community, Dan Khun Thot District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province in the form of Fine art Photography . This creative work process will allow the community to participate in the presentation by conducting formal interviews, participatory observations of daily life, and the impacts that the community has received on the issues of physical space, the environment, and the rights of people in the community. Each concept will be used to explain the phenomena that occur. The researcher will use the concepts of Anthropocene and Environmental Anthropology to study the areas of the community that have been affected in which way from mining plants and government policies on resources, including the changing environment of the community. How do people in the community adapt, change, and negotiate with the state and capital in their areas of life? Then, the analysis under both conceptual frameworks will be developed into the creative work process of photography, images under the framework of contemporary art where artwork can open up opportunities for viewers and society to freely interpret the meanings from what the artist has presented as work.
Process / Methodology :
Techniques and Materials :
Inkjet on paper.
Result / Conclusion :
From the process of fieldwork, formal interviews with leaders of villagers who participated in the movement against the potash mine, in terms of information from the researcher, it was found that the invasion of the mine was a process of capital combined with government agencies entering the community area without informing the community of the purpose. At first, the survey team that arrived around 2005 came to ask to dig a survey pit, only telling the people in the community that they came to survey the salinity of the soil in the villagers’ farmland. After that, in 2009-2011, the mine started to request a concession and completed the mine construction in 2015. During the time that drilling began, it started to affect the community’s farmland. Saltwater from mining overflowed into the community’s farmland and public water sources, causing the villagers to demand the mine be closed to the government.
In terms of the creative process, the creator began by photographing portraits and landscapes in affected areas. Then they selected photos that could convey the issues occurring in the community, the struggles for rights, areas where people cannot make a living, and disappearing beliefs. These are the stories that this series of photographs aims to tell.
References :
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