The Rockbund Art Museum opened a long-term knowledge sharing and discussion platform, "Making Substance," which used the art gallery as an alternative education space to discuss topics less widely discussed in general education and even higher education and encouraged the free expression of views. We first opened the offline lectures and online content sharing of the "Finding Maritime Asia" series related to the gallery's vision. Unlike continental and national art institutions, RAM developed an ocean vision of contemporary art. In the "Reading Room" project in 2021, through the presentation of a series of bibliographies, we explored the importance of Asia's oceans and islands, enriched the audience's understanding of the role of oceans in human history and culture, and provided interpretation of issues related to power domination, ecological resources, relationships between different groups, and so on. In 2022, we cooperated with scholars, practitioners, and artists who paid attention to this topic to plan a total of six activities. Through the expansion and extension of the three topics of Ocean Imagination and Deep-sea Fear, Maritime Asia in History, and Back to the Field, we explored the image and metaphor shaped by the "ocean," the self of "oceanic Asia," and how the ocean had become a field of human imagination, power, and mobility.
上海外滩美术馆开启了一个长期的知识共享和讨论平台“造物谈（Making Substance）”，将美术馆作为替代教育空间，去讨论普通教育乃至高等教育中较少被广泛讨论的议题，鼓励自由的观点表达。如果说当代艺术是艺术家对社会议题、个人观察与情感的回应和追问，那美术馆公共教育就是对这些议题的再延伸、将知识网与公众相互连接，并鼓励平等的交流、表达与反思。“造物谈”将作为长期公共教育项目，在每年展开一个议题，包括但不限于工作伦理、环境与可持续性、人工智能与生命政治、女性主义，并邀请关注相关议题的学者、实践者、艺术家联合策划。通过系列活动及分享，我们希望充分鼓励每个个体的看法和见解，创造共同学习的体验，并激发不同学科和社会群体之间的批判性思考和交流。我们首先开启的是与美术馆视野相关的“寻找海洋亚洲”系列线下讲座及线上内容分享。不同于大陆性和国族性艺术机构积重难返的状态，上海外滩美术馆正在发展当代艺术的海洋性视野。在2021年的“阅览室”项目中，通过系列书目的呈现，我们探索了亚洲海洋和群岛重要性的过程，丰富观众对于海洋在人类历史文化中的角色认知，提供对涉及权力支配、生态资源、不同群体间关系等相关议题的解读。2022年我们与关注此议题的学者、实践者、艺术家合作策划活动，通过对深海恐惧、历史中的海洋亚洲、回到水域三个话题的展开与延伸，探索“海洋”被塑造出的意象与隐喻、“海洋亚洲”的自我，海洋是如何成为人类想象，权力以及流动的场域。
