This is actually my very first time visiting the Art Science Museum in Marina Bay Sands. We visited the Human+ The Future of our species exhibition and we were given 1 hour to tour around the museum, I was pretty amazed by the artwork and installation that were done by many well-known artists and also not forgetting some of the artwork was done proudly by NTU students and their professors.
Personal Review – No. 1
While touring around the Museum I found some interesting artwork that I wanted to include in the OSS.
Name of Artist: Cao Fei
Title of Artwork: Whose Utopia?
Description of the work: It’s a video installation done by the artist Cao Fei produced back in 2006. Total length of the film (20mins 20sec)
Preliminary Read
Upon entering the small room which screened the film “Whose Utopia” by Cao Fei video, we can hear the factory-like sounds which really attracts me. My initial impression of the work as I watch the video, I saw a group of young adults working in the light-blub factory with no special expressions, as we can see they are not happy with their life, no dreams, being trained and used to their daily routine. I felt that they were so called trap in a box and unable to express themselves.
Secondary Read
After reading the descriptions, I was correct. It was something related to their hopes and dreams of the individuals. The film really brought out the emotions and it shows us the facts of their daily life. It took the the artist a total of 6 months to produce out the video, the total length of the video is about 20 mins and 20 sec which displayed clearly on the wall. The message in the video has a strong meaning behind it which can be relates to people as they watch the film.
Personal Review – No. 2
Name of Artist: Matt Kenyo and Douglas Easterly with Tiago Rorke
Title of artwork: Tardigotchi Object
Description of the work: A cute looking little device called: Tardigotchi which is make of plastic with a few metal screws to secure the screen.
Preliminary Read
How does the work enable you to gathering and build those informations?
When i first came across this piece of artwork, I was actually pretty excited as this reminds of my childhood, which I used to own one of the cute looking little device called, tamagotchi. The feeling of owning one of the device which allowing you a new experience of having a pet without any hassle. The Tardigotchi and tamagotchi which has the same word “gotchi” which representing the word “Egg”. It is also representing your virtual pet in your device started from an egg which hatch eventually.
Secondary Read
After reading the descriptions on the wall, it shows clearly that the device has something to do with virtual pet. It features two pets: a living organism and an artificial life avatar which find themselves unlikely denizens of a computer enclosure as we can see from the information board. The device name “Tardigotchi” was referencing the famous Tamagotchi toy from the 1990s. This piece of artwork communicates to people because at our very first glance, the name “Gotchi” and the object flashes through out brains which brings back old memories from our childhood, which is something people can also relate on.