Abigail Setiadi

My name is Abigail. I am 21 and was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. I will be taking part as a research intern for Secretopia. I am currently in my last semester studying International Studies, where I specialise in the Latin American region with a minor in Museums, Heritage and Collections at Leiden University.

Being brought up in Indonesia, a contextually conservative country made it difficult to have conversations and fundamentally tackling issues regarding topics considered “taboo” within sexuality, gender and bodily secretions. Consequently, this has hindered the education on important topics that are intertwined with taboo and systemic social issues that I believe both women and men should be informed of. Furthermore, although I lived in an environment that inhibited the discussion of these topics, I have had the pleasure of growing up in an international academic environment where I witnessed the other side of the bi-polarity spectrum of openness and agency regarding the issues embedded in topics of bodily secretions. Through Mediamatic's space, platform and their focus on merging art, science and the use of a multi-disciplinary approach I believe that we can thereby tackle these issues, thus my interest in being a research intern in the Secretopia project.

I believe that this internship will be a very beneficial experience within the art and culture job sector (which I aspire to be in), I also love that Mediamatic focuses on sustainability and environmentalism as that was a large part of my childhood. From a young age, my exposure to sustainability and environmentalism has been engrained in me as I was brought up within a small academic community near The Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia. Where many of the community members were multicultural scientists researching forestry and endangered animals and consequently have inspired me to love and appreciate nature. My hobbies include scuba diving, hiking/walking through forests, yoga and horse riding. I hope with this internship I will be able to contribute to the projects as much as I will gain new knowledge.