Research Project: Mediating the Mekong

Richard Streitmatter-Tran's research project examines the role of media on the development of visual arts in the Mekong region: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. The project reads ‘Mediating’ as both ‘media’ and ‘mediation.’ One the one hand, media has potential to be used by way artists and art professionals as transmission and communication tools – a space for sharing. On the other, it is an information infrastructure within which one operates and mediates.  

Streitmatter-Tran’s research culminated in a final written report, and videos, images and documents which were collected during the process. All are available from AAA. 


Richard Streitmatter-Tran (b. 1972, Bien Hoa, Vietnam) is an artist living and working in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He received his degree in the Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM) at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. His work has exhibited in several cities in the United States, Europe and Asia including the Singapore Biennale 2006, 2005 Pocheon Asian Art Festival, the 2004 Gwangju Biennale, Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, Blue Space Gallery in Ho Chi Minh City, 7th Asiatopia Performance Art Festival in Bangkok, Art Tech Media 06 in Barcelona. He is an Asia Pacific correspondent for the Madrid-based arts magazine Art.Es and Ho Chi Minh City editor for Contemporary. He was Teaching Fellow at Harvard University (2000-2004), conducted media arts research at the MIT Media Lab (2000), Visiting Lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts University in 2003 and currently Lecturer at RMIT Vietnam.

Judges for AAA Research Grant 2005 include:

Lee Weng Choy, Artistic Co-Director, The Substation, Singapore.
Pamela Kember, Independent curator and art historian, Hong Kong.
Jane DeBevoise, Chair, Board of Directors, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong.
Claire Hsu, Executive Director, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong.
Phoebe Wong, Head of Research+, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong.