Rehearsing Changes: Art and Everyday Politics in Thailand
Join this event: https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/92113644363
About the Talk: At a time when street protests in Thailand have reached a stalemate, this talk explores how art and cultural practices function as rehearsal spaces for political transformation, drawing from my work from 2020-2025 as an academic and art practitioner.
I will discuss Walk to the Stars (2021), a children’s storybook that reveals the struggles of the present by visualizing the ongoing burdens of neoliberal society through poetic storytelling; Nine Folk Tales (2023), a series that reinterprets traditional folklore to entangle past narratives to illuminate the struggles of the present; and Stardust Odyssey: City’s Last Stand (2025), a tabletop game that simulates present crises while offering an imaginative space to project fairer futures through embodied experiences of socio-economic inequality and collective decision-making. These diverse projects share a common goal: to make political structures visible in everyday life and to offer imaginative spaces for people to rehearse change.
By examining these artistic interventions, I explore how creative practices provide alternative avenues for engagement alongside activism and policymakers—offering tools for reflection, conversation, and collective visioning. The talk will also reflect on the challenges and limitations of using art and cultural tools as political strategies in contexts where not only freedom of expression is restricted but also forming collectivity among practitioners remains a challenge in a neoliberal context. Finally, I will connect these artistic interventions to the broader landscape of ongoing political uncertainties and their relationship with younger generations in Thailand.
About the Speaker: Rubkwan Thammaboosadee is an academic and researcher at the Department of Performing Arts at Bangkok University, Thailand. Her research focuses on cultural performance and its relation to socio-political contexts. She teaches a range of modules, including Arts and Politics, Playwriting, Art of Storytelling, Citizenship, and Social Transformation.
Rubkwan’s current research interests involve exposing inequality through performance studies within the context of economic disparities in neoliberal Thailand. Her work emphasises art’s potential to instigate social change and foster collective imagination. She also explores the creative potential of art and culture to provoke imagination and promote social change. As an independent scriptwriter for stage, film, and literature, her recent storybook, “Walk to the Stars,” was awarded the Best Media for Promoting Creative Learning in People’s Participation in Policies Proposals in 2022.
Her creative works aim to create dialogues between neoliberal socio-economic conditions and their impacts on everyday life, advocating for a more equal society. Rubkwan believes that art and culture play a crucial role in implementing structural changes at the micro level, changes that cannot be achieved through scholarly theories alone.