[Seeds of Change] Contested Nature x 4D Mapping

Why This Matters

Singapore’s nature is often framed as nature versus development. In fact, planners now map ecological connectivity across land and sea, and use it to guide land and sea use plans. But space is scarce, so some green and blue spaces will still be developed. The harder question is how those trade-offs are weighed, and who gets a say.

What’s at stake is more than any one site. It’s the network of green and blue spaces that sustains wildlife. It’s also our relationship with land and sea: the stories, identity and sense that nature is ours to care for, not just something managed for us.

Agencies, developers, the public and conservation groups each see a different part of this system. To shift it, we may need to sense it before we can see it. So we ask:

How are decisions about Singapore’s nature made, and who has a say?

Contested Nature with

4D Mapping

Seeds of Change

A public workshop series that combines systems thinking and futures tools to help practitioners, changemakers and curious citizens think and decide differently in complexity.

See overview of the series here.

What You’ll Walk Away With

By the end of the workshop, you will have:

• Hands-on experience of 4D Mapping, a body-based technology for sensing systems through a social body.

• A clearer sense of how trade-offs over land and sea are made, and where influence really sits.

• Insight into how different stakeholders, including nature itself, experience the same situation.

• New connections with others who care about Singapore's nature.

Date: 9 January 2027, Sat

Time: 9am - 12.30pm

Venue: JR Fitness, #02-14 Waterloo Centre

Cost: S$30

What We’ll Do

Social Presencing Theatre (SPT) is an embodied, movement-based practice that helps groups sense the systems they’re part of. Through posture, proximity and movement, participants make hidden relational dynamics visible, building awareness, empathy and clearer choices. SPT was co-created by choreographer Arawana Hayashi and MIT’s Otto Scharmer, drawing on the Theory U framework.

With Nature Society Singapore, we will:

• Ground ourselves in how decisions about our terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems are made today

• Embody key stakeholders and map the system as it is.

• Move slowly toward an emerging future and notice what shifts.

• Reflect on what this means for your own work or community.

Photo Credit: Living Soil Asia