Reflection from PORT SINGAPORE

It’s been quite a journey, and it all started from this:

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Why did we pick Port Cities again as our topic? I don’t remember much of it now, but I remember agreeing to the topic because I was watching this movie Pirates of the Caribbean – a pirate movie set in fictional Port Royal with European colonialism setting – the night before, and Singapore was briefly mentioned in the movie. That piqued my interest. And my naming sense.

We all know how Singapore history is often discussed as a port city built by the British out of a sleepy fishing village. But is it really? I mean, just look at the geography, it is smack in the middle of Melacca Strait, surely there should be more? There was, and its name was Temasek. So, two of the biggest port cities in the trade hotspot of SEA once stood here, one of them still does actually until today. Why should we be looking anywhere else for this topic?

After some more initial research and browsing around, we thus decided to cover not one, but two of them at the same time. It was around that timing that field trip to NUS museum rolled around the corner, too.

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And at least two of us had the chance of actually seeing the object we’re going to present – the Chinese compass fragments and the Copper coins. We’d like to think it really helps, especially in making these :

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Well.

In hindsight, for the digital media ideas, parts of it came from ACM too, in which there were those interactive panels displaying the context of their exhibitions. Context of the artefacts seems to be very important to ACM, because it really draws people to the story behind it. And we’d like to bring them into this project.

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Not everything in our project has that clever sounding reasoning, though. I have to confess, that the other part of the reason also came from my own personal project for my other module – in which I attempted to bring an immersive experience of the ocean into various media.

And so we got this concept of digital multi-sensory experience in the exhibition. I’d like to think that Port Singapore is an exhibition that transcends time in more than a way; it connects a past with an even older past, and also current technology with history.

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Welcome aboard! or Welcome home!

Overall, this entire semester has been fun. For one, it sated my compulsive tendency to browse random information to fill my journal with. It’s also kind of nostalgic, as I got to recall a lot of good chunks of information drilled into my head before from my past history lessons, be it from ADM, my JC days when I took South East Asian history and from even further back. As with those history modules, they worked to patch gaps of understanding of each others and raised new topics to ponder about.

I get a mixed feeling knowing this is probably the last history module I’m taking in a formal education setting. Knowing that (I think) I’ve managed to learn things from this module, topics that are quite close to home even, sure feels like a nice closure. History lessons have brought me through time and space, to situations and people I may or may not actually meet or interact with, and it’s helped me making sense of what happens in this world all the same. It’s only fitting that I close this long journey with the topics I can actually relate with.

And so, the ocean has been traversed and the ship is docking. It’s been quite a journey indeed. Not one without turbulence and ever changing weather, but well, that’s a journey for you.

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Until then,

Aurelia.

Ninth week : Bayu

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I admit I had to visit this exhibition twice. During my first visit, I really thought the theme of the exhibition was about ‘water’ – because I was confusing “bayu” with “banyu”, which means water in Javanese.

Overall, I was impressed. To be honest, I don’t know much about Islamic art in general. Well, I do know some of its philosophies and customs – it’s kinda a given for me, having born and raised in Indonesia, a country with one of the highest percentage of Muslim, but I don’t know much about its art beyond calligraphies.

Most of them played with the questions on customs and traditions, restrictions and faith. A couple of artworks that was particularly interesting for me was the tile art, whose visual and craft were outstanding, and an installation which features the set up of a praying devotee. It pays tribute for spiritual elements of sacredness and ritual of faiths, something that are often taken for granted or deemed obsolete in today’s society.

It was refreshing, to say the least. There are not many contemporary art that I enjoyed, but those artworks really took different perspective – compared to most, which are Western based.

Team 6 : Draft of the label and Temasek Wall Text ver 2.5

Following group discussions and input as well as suggestions from Sujatha, here’s the newly revised Wall Poster text for the Temasek Site:

Wall Poster: About Port Temasek

In the 14th and 15th century, some source refers to Singapore by the name Temasek, which means Sea Town or Sea Port in Javanese. The earliest source to refer the town as such was the Nagarakretama, a Javanese epic poem. It was known as a vibrant, important and heavily used commercial passage between China and India due to its strategic location, and was also known for its rampant piracy.

Following the fall of Srivijaya Kingdom, Temasek was ruled by Majapahit and Siamese Kingdom alternately. Eventually it became part of the Kingdom of Melacca. During the 16th and 17th century, it was one of the most important port city and a trading centre for the Sultanate of Johor, before its fall due to attacks from the Portuguese armies.

Recent discoveries coming into light by the means of archeological findings suggest that this trading activity continued to last until the early 17th century, before the coming of the British colonialists. Amongst these artefacts are numerous pieces of ceramics of many forms and functions and Chinese copper coins.

As far back as the 8th century, earthenwares and porcelains have been the Chinese prominent products that were both highly treasured and widely used by the people. Ceramics from that period come in many different varieties and qualities. Unglazed earthenwares were more commonly found, and their function comprised of everyday uses, such as kitchenwares.

Blue and white porcelains are amongst the high quality ceramics reserved for the important people, trades and functions. The method of the glazing, creation and their material itself were well-kept secret until as far as the 17th – 18th century, when the British managed to recreate it after years of trial and error.

The copper coins, on the other hand, were one of the dominant currencies used in trading. Excavations so far have managed to unearth various currencies from the region around Malacca Strait and beyond, one of them being Chinese. The origins of these coins stretch from the Song dynasty to the Yuan dynasty, further corroborating the history of well-established trade between China and Singapore.

As the excavations are still ongoing, there is a high chance that further evidences will be collected to shed even more light to the history of trades in the Temasek Port before the arrival of the British colonialists. Perhaps then we could even see current theories being debunked and new stories being unearthed, along with these invaluable treasures from the land.

 

Object label: Pieces of Ceramic Compass Bowl

20151029011126Blue and white ceramic
Singapore (Temasek), 14th – 15th century
Currently in the possession of NUS museum

These seven fragments of blue and white porcelain make the most important find ever uncovered from the excavation at Fort Canning in 1984; an one of a kind ancient compass. The Chinese are the inventors of compass. Ancient mariners would float a magnetised needle attached to a cork on the bowl filled with water or liquid mercury. The needle would then rotate to indicate the north-south position.

To date, this is the only known discovery of the compass with the circular directional markings in traditional script as the blue underglaze design of the bowl in the world. The colours and design suggest its origin from the China, the land of the porcelains. Meanwhile, the material – cobalt blue design as the underglaze – suggests its high value as a treasured possession in the past, while the uniqueness of the design opens up infinite possibilities of its origin and the historical narrative behind the tool.

Found at the heart of the Temasek civilisation at the Fort Canning, it shows that Chinese travellers had  since long been conducting important trades in the vicinity of the Temasek Port. These pieces also supports the assertion that Temasek was one of the busiest and most prosperous trading port in the 14th century Malacca Strait.

Team 6 : Updated Item label and Temasek Poster

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NUS Museum trip

The last field trip to the NUS museum has brought some new insight to our project – particularly because it has such an excellent ceramic collections, discoveries from both Temasek and British Colonial eras and more importantly, it’s actually hosting the very objects we want to present in our project.

Presenting the one and only..

Chinese Compass Fragment

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Blue and white ceramic
Singapore (Temasek), 14th – 15th century
Currently in the possession of NUS museum

These seven fragments make the most important find ever uncovered from the excavation at Fort Canning. The Chinese are the inventors of compass. Ancient Chinese mariners would float a magnetised needle on the bowl filled with water and mercury and use the underglaze design as a compass.

To date, this is the only known discovery of this type of ancient Chinese compass in the world. It shows that Chinese trade has since long been conducted in the vicinity of the Temasek Port.

 

Temasek Poster Draft

In the 14th and 15th century, some source refers to Singapore by the nameTemasek, which means Sea Town or Sea Port in Javanese. The earliest source to refer the town as such was the Nagarakretama, a Javanese epic poem. It was known as an important and heavily used commercial passage between China and India, and was also known for its rampant piracy.

Following the fall of Srivijaya Kingdom, Temasek was ruled by Majapahit and Siamese Kingdom alternately. Eventually it became part of the Kingdom of Melacca. During the 16th and 17th century, it was one of the most important port city and a trading centre for the Sultanate of Johor, before its fall due to attacks from the Portuguese armies.

Recent discoveries coming into light by the means of archeological findings suggest that this trading activity continued to last until the early 17th century, before the coming of the British colonialists.

 

Eighth Week : Kain Ikat Sumba and Little Sunda Geography

During the guided tour, most of my attention actually went to a completely different direction – I was distracted by a study of the layout of museums and exhibits, instead of the content of the exhibition itself. As evidenced by my field notes – here’s a screenshot of it, this might be somewhat useful anyhow for our exhibition designs :

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But that won’t do for a reflection blog post, will it?

Alright. There are fascinating things that I saw in the museum. Things that made it there in my field notes, things that compelled me to dig the clutter in my room for things.

The exhibit that hold most of my short spanned attention for me, hands down, is the Sumba-nese kain tenun ikat. Kain (textile/cloth) tenun (weaved) Ikat (tied) Sumba is unique, yet it bears some of the elements that are also found in Balinese and Flores(-ian/ -nese?) textile. Well, this might be a personal bias after all; one of my close relatives was stationed at Flores a few years back, and then Papua. Ever since then I have been (very) slightly exposed to the compelling culture of the Eastern Indonesia.

Here’s a little comparison between a Sumba(-nese) textile and a piece of Flores(-ian) inspired printed batik that I apparently have buried in my years of hoarding things under my desk:

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Sumba textile

 

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Flores “batik”. Honestly, I forgot why I have this in the first place.

The interesting thing is that while we often lump the textile together under the umbrella term batik, not everyone does. This (Indonesian) article differentiates traditional textile into four types: tenun ikat, kain songket, kain lurik, and batik. In the western side of Indonesia, Sumatra, kain songket is the common one. Batik and Lurik flourishes in the Java Island, while tenun ikat dominates the traditional textile in the Eastern Indonesia.

Sumba Island is located at the east of Lombok, which is next to Bali. This area in particular is called Little Sunda (now, this term actually turned my head around at ACM. Sunda is the name of a cultural region of my home province. What is that name doing there, I haven’t had the time to research it as for yet).  Geographers classify that region (Nusa Tenggara), along with Sulawesi Island, as the Central Indonesia (GMT +8), a region that separates Western Indonesia (GMT +7), which are by large dominated by Javanese culture especially in that area, and Eastern Indonesia (GMT +9).

Now, the textile.

As also explained by our kind tour guide, traditional textile holds a very important function in a culture, and its pictorial design tells us a thousand stories in their history.  Most of the graphic elements are nature inspired, such as human skull, prawn, chicken, dragon, snake, horse, fish, deer, birds and bulls. Among them are elements that are also related to foreign cultures who interacted with the society, such as the Chinese (dragon) and the Dutch (tri coloured flag, crowns and lions).

Another interesting pattern to note would be the mirroring arrangements of shapes in pairs of perfect symmetry. It represents a traditional spiritual concept of connection between the realm of reality and the realm of supernatural, which is believed to be a shadow of each other.

Geography also matters in the textile design. Eastern Sumba-nese kain typically has a black background, while the Western Sumba-nese prefers dark blue.

Calling a kain tenun ikat a batik textile, might be erroneous. Most locals would understand Batik as a textile which design are drawn, or nowadays, printed, directly onto the cloth, while tenun ikat are made as the name suggested, by the means of weaving and/or tie dyeing. Nowadays, this classification is often blurred even further with more Batik craftmen, adapting the tenun ikat pattern for inspiration as the textile and exotic traditional pattern become more popular and highly sought after by consumers in this post-modern era. An example, of course, being my own printed Floresian batik.

 

Seventh week: Japoineserie, Interior Design and Frank Lloyd Wright

Disclaimer: this week’s research might contain even more subjective context than most, as some of them are based on first hand experience.

The most interesting thing that I found as I search for Japoineserie or Japonisme in the interior and architecture design is that its intepretation and influence have been so deeply rooted in some of the biggest names in the modern Western Architecture, one of them being Frank Lloyd Wright. He’s one of the famous American architects that embraces total design and Asian, especially Japanese philosophy in his ideology and creations.

Other than that, he’s also quite a graphic designer, a product based on his design being that souvenir coaster in this post’s featured image.

He’s also one of my biggest inspiration when it comes to space and interior design, largely due to my first hand experience of staying in a space he designed for a week, Taliesin West.

Taliesin West might just be the most fascinating school – scratch that – piece of Asian influenced design that I’ve ever seen. Imagine touring the outer wall of a building that’s said to be a masterpiece of an American design, and suddenly, you encounter this:

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Or in one of the function rooms, this:

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Apparently, that’s genuinely imported from some sites in China and/or Japan and/or India, too. I didn’t have to wait for the dean, who was giving us a tour to tell me that the Asian influence is strong in this one.

Bizarre random appropriated artefacts aside, I shall focus on the Japanese influence on interior design, as Mr Wright has adopted it.

He’s being a very idealistic designer and a great thinker, Japanoiserie and Japonism in his case goes deeper than simply appropriating Japanese visual images to space at face value for decoration purposes. Instead he dissects them into basic elements and applies them as he sees fit into his own design philosophy, which is based on following the flow of natural environments and humans’ harmonic way of living. If it reminds one of the principle of wabisabi or zen, one would understand how much influence this oriental fascination had on him.

His interior design typically incorporates large open space and play on soft natural light, much like traditional Japanese interior. By large, it’s also designed to go well with Japanese influenced furnitures.
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These are some photos I took of the architect’s previous residence located in the campus (on which floor I actually slept for a night). As observed, seeping in between the practical functions and features of a western room (sofas, fireplace) are Japanese elements and trinkets, courtesy of Mr Wright’s hobby of collecting Asian exotic things. There was even a screen resembling those of Namban screen at one of the corners. At a glance, the room feels like a cabinet of curiousity by itself.

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Trinkets aside, you might observe the more subtle elements of the room itself. This is the most exciting observation for me.

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Horizontal orientation of the room – ceilings vertical height are purposely made low to give the optical illusion of a wide open space. Walls are arranged with wooden panels on white. In this arrangement, special attentions are given to their spacings, to determine the rhythm of the place.

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Windows are strategically located with curtains to soften the light, not unlike the paper walls (shoji) found in traditional Japanese room. Lights are placed such that its effect are soft and not too overpowering. During the day, natural light replaced them to give the same effect of tranquility. Combined with walls made of surrounding material in the middle of the desert, it is an epitome of Japanese inspired organic architecture with focus on human experience that has inspired the world of architecture and interior design for years.

For example, these are a couple of pictures of the room I stayed in for most of my stay there, designed by one of Mr Wright’s former pupils.

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I was, and still am, immensely grateful for the experience and inspired by these clever adaptation of a culture into a personal design philosophy.

And needless to say, this experience have me some ideas on how I would design and decorate my own ideal room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Team 6 Port Temasek wall poster draft

Below are the current draft for the wall post on the Temasek Site

 

In the 14th and 15th century, some source refers to Singapore by the name Temasek, which means Sea Town or Sea Port in Javanese. The earliest source to refer the town as such was the Nagarakretama, a Javanese epic poem. It was known as an important and heavily used commercial passage between China and India, and was also known for its rampant piracy.

Following the fall of Srivijaya Kingdom, Temasek was ruled by Majapahit and Siamese Kingdom alternately. Eventually it became part of the Kingdom of Melacca.During the 16th and 17th century, it was one of the most important port city and a trading centre for the Sultanate of Johor. Recent discoveries coming into light suggest that this trading activity had been going on as far back as the 14th century.

(need to consider this too?)

Team 6 Item: Fragments of Chinese Ceramic Compass Bowl

This is one of the items proposed for the Temasek side of our exhibition, pieces of a Chinese Ceramic Compass.

compass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pieces of Chinese Ceramic Compass
Ceramic
Singapore (Temasek), 14th century
Currently in possession of NUS museum

This unique fragments are part of the important find uncovered at the excavation at Fort Canning. Ancient Chinese mariners would float a magnetised needle on the bowl filled with water and mercury and use the underglaze design as a compass. To date, this is the only known example of this type of ancient Chinese compass. It shows that Chinese trade has since long been conducted in the area since the Temasek era.