Paper short abstract:

Thailand in 2595 BE (2052 CE) A sci-fi comic story that braids together ecologically driven grief and complicated grief is at the centre of this paper that engages with vulnerability and resilience on a wider geographical scale and with life in the Anthropocene from a material culture perspective.

Paper long abstract:

Thailand in 2595 BE (2052 CE) - It is Link's fifth death anniversary. Roong, who survived a disaster that turned the Malay peninsula into an ephemeral archipelago, urges her widowed father to resume a "normal life". While she recovered from the inflicted stress, he stays at home. He lost his job, colleagues, friends, neighbours, appetite, dreams, and hope. He only speaks with his daughter. Intrigued by a pal's experimental brain-machine interface designed to delete "bad memories", she agrees to test the device on her father. Will it work? Told by a group of Thai secondary school students envisioning a career in medicine and the natural sciences, this sci-fi comic story imaginatively and productively braids together ecologically driven grief and complicated grief with life in the Anthropocene. What their progressive narrative that problematises environmental policy and high-skill labour migration in the Global South may add to current scholarly and policy debates of vulnerability and disaster resilience on a wider geographical scale is explored and examined from a material culture perspective and situated within Southeast Asia's fast growing science-city population.