This book analyses the intersections between contemporary art and environmental activism in Indonesia. Exploring how the arts have promoted ecological awareness from the late 1960s to the early 2020s, the book shows how the arts have contributed to societal change and public and political responses to environmental crises. This period covers Indonesia’s rapid urban development under the totalitarian New Order regime (1967–1998) as well as the enhanced freedom of expression, alternative development models, and environmental problems under the democratic governments since 1998. The book applies the concept of ‘artivism’ to refer to the vital role of art in activism. It seeks to identify and contextualise both the potential and limits of environmental artivism in Indonesia, a country whose vibrant art scenes and monumental social transformations provide a productive laboratory for exploring the power of creativity as a social and political change agent. It provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary art from Indonesia, with an in-depth analysis of artivists who seek to address and find solutions for some of the most pressing environmental issues of our times. With its detailed, empirical approach to environmental art from Southeast Asia, this project fills in an important gap in the literature on art and activism. It is aimed at academics, students, artists, curators, policymakers, activists, and general readers with an interest in the environment, art history, and Indonesian culture, society, and politics.

Technical inventions show slow but massive infiltration from east to west throughout the first fourteen centuries.. Until the 15th century, Western European technology may be said to have been less advanced than that of other Old World regions. The transfer of Far-eastern know-how continued in modern times, and among the latecomers textile-printing had a major impact as a primer of the Industrial Revolution. The fast and bright colors of chintz elicited the Indian craze in fashion, causing a permanent shortage of cotton-yarn ending up in the invention of spinning machines. It took up to a hundred years until textile printing established itself in Europe and - in accordance with the general trend - led to the mechanization of the process by Th. Bell's famous roller-printing equipment (1783). In contrast to earlier transfer-stories this one took place in the lime-light of historical documents.