This case study is about an exhibition by Candice Ng, called Sleeping in the Power Sockets. She presents the artistic project this way:
“Inherent in the research towards understanding what it means to live more immersively in this techno-social world, all constituents and users of technology become crucial players in the picture. With society’s ability to live longer today through ‘better health-care, education, financial assistance, and social support systems.’ (Kaplan, Henkin, Kusano 2002), the under-girded philosophical pinning of humankind’s obsession with unacceptable death surfacing in post-human and cyborg theories – becomes a crucial area to study. In order to further understand the impact of this theory upon man’s relationship to technology and social life, Candice believes that it is perhaps important to start by understanding man’s relationship to objects. What we choose to identify ourselves with and the act of leaving behind paraphernalia – of means to leave a mark; that of passing values, wills (both monetary and ethical), the need of a second self – is crucial to study. In this body of work, Candice takes an examined look into her own life as she negotiates how the progressive landscape of technology is slowly but surely altering the various aspects of her past, present and future. Through the fabrication and experimentation of creating new objects and experiences across various mediums, she constructs possible futures and situates interactions with emerging technologies, possibly finding ways to which she can make sense of her world.”
As guest speaker (session 6, 18 February), she is preparing a sharing session which is outlined as follows:
- Introduction: What the project is about
- Beginnings: How it started
- Research: Deep study into area of inquiry
- Timeline planning & Budget
- Prototype: Test design and mock ups, Technology etc
- Plan for Spatial Layout
- Documentation
- Conclusion
More on her project at webpages: http://candiceng.com/New-Artifacts-of-Remembering.
To prepare yourself for this session, watch the film clips and read the writeups. To get a feeling of how it fits with the context of her previous work, familiarise yourself by browsing http://candiceng.com/. In class, we will discuss three questions:
- How does Candice Ng’s work contribute to the ongoing public discussions about identity, in the context of Singapore and South-East Asia?
- How does her work relate to NTU’s stated ‘peaks of excellence‘, in particular “the new silk road” and “new media”?
- What other artists‘ works (including your own!) have you experienced, for example in a gallery exhibition, that might share the spirit of Ng’s work?
Before class, post a statement on OSS addressing one of these three questions (it can be your personal answer, a follow-up question, or a discussion why this is relevant or not etc…)