Category: Research

3D | An Alternative

Hello! As shown in the previous lessons, we were trying out a holographic party streamers – courtesy of Anna. The main idea that we were going for was the flowy look that flutters organically and moves according to the wind direction. We felt that the way it flows resembles the movement of the ribbon eel, and if you were to stand below the streamers, the ends lightly touches and brushes you and it kind of feels as though the shrimp is “cleaning” you.

So, Anna and I finally went for material shopping! We went to Sim Lim Tower to get our lights, and managed to attach a motion sensor onto it which was really cool 😉 We also had a mini break time and we went to take a look at the nearby thieves market. If you’re nearby Sim Lim, go take a look at Thieves Market as it sells anything and everything!! I mean like EVERYTHING. From random boots, old guitars, random cassette tapes and lots of talisman. I didn’t take any photos because the people there are kinda rowdy and scary so we kept our belongings really close to ourselves lol. 

Our main goal for our material field trip was to get our holographic streamers which Anna got it from Spotlight. But guess what… they don’t sell it anymore!! We went to Art Friend, Daiso and even random shops hoping that they sell any holographic paper T__T But noooooooo. 

Time check: 9.10pm @ Spotlight. We had no choice but to change our direction and find a colour-changing fabric instead. After much digging through rolls and rolls of fabric, we decided to get this white sparkly cloth that slightly shimmers under the light, but we weren’t really convinced with it 🙁 And it was super expensive! 1 metre was $14.99 and we needed 5 metres AT LEAST. So we both thought it was impossible as it was waaaaay out of our budget. In the end, we decided to just buy a metre of it and see how it goes. 

Our Back-Up Plan

That week was crazy as we had multiple submissions. I only had one free day and rushed down to Chinatown to take a look at their fabrics which is much cheaper than Spotlight, hoping that I’ll be able to find something similar to the holographic effect.The criteria was really simple – as long as it changes colours & shimmers in the light but it was so tough! Here are some of the fabrics I found that I felt could make the cut. 

None of them made the cut, and while communicating with my dear partner through whatsapp, we were kinda going towards the first pink fabric, it’s similar to the holographic effect because it  changes colour! But the thing is… it was PINK. I started hovering around that particular shop and the owner actually mentioned she has more in the warehouse.

& she brought me there…. Well honestly I was low-key freaking out because what if she’s those kidnapper and or sorts LOL. Cos People’s Park Complex is quite a secluded area, and we had to walk quite a distance to her warehouse, which was located in another building beside the Complex. But luckilyyyy nothing happen hahaha.

I was looking through piles & piles of fabric, it was INSANE. I guess lady luck was at my side as while I was simply zoning out, I spot this fabric…. which is the EXACT same colour of the ribbon eel (blue/yellow) Best part is, IT CHANGES COLOUR!!!! OH MY GOD

I was super excited and I can’t believe I managed to find a fabric that looks exactly like the ribbon eel. This is insane. I’ve never been so excited about fabrics before hahaha, so it was a new experience. 

The auntie was really nice too as she sold the fabric to me at a discounted price – $5 for 1m, originally for $5.50 la hahaha. But better than nothing right.

Sigh what a waste, we should have came to Chinatown in the first place! Because I saw the exact same fabric that we got from spotlight that sells for only $6 per metre, godddddd.

As you can see from the picture below, she’s cutting our beautiful fabric as it shimmers so nicely in the light T_T

 

3D | Experimenting with Scintilla

Hello!!! We’re back with our creature Scintilla, and to start of with this project, we tried experimenting with different materials and exploring the movements of our creature.

Anna and I brought some stuffs from home. Our direction was to go the flowy, flexible kind of style as we felt the Scintilla’s movement are more graceful and soft. Thus, our materials that we used that day were mainly fabrics and threads.

Using foam and black sticks as the frame to support the cloth. The fabric used was a soft white netted fabric. We wanted “wind” to be main source of energy that moves the fabric to give a soft, flowy movement.

A video of how the movement looks like! Apologies for the amt of noise in the videoooooo

3D | Moving like a Ribbon Eel

On Friday, we had our lesson held in a dance studio. A change of environment which made things much more interesting! We were aware that we will be doing some movement exercise that is related to our group’s chosen animals – Ribbon Eel and Shrimp and I was kinda worried because… as you guys have witnessed it, I’m not as flexible as you think I am hahaha. But I tried!! 

Lesson started off with us playing a clapping game which is to test if we can follow the beats. Really fun game as we have to be extra aware of which direction the beat is going while counting onto the rhythm. Honestly the class started off with a good note because it was really engaging and the game didn’t leave anyone out 😉 

After the mini game, we had to start moving around according to our chosen animals. As for me, I’m supposed to be a Ribbon Eel… which is suppose to be graceful and REALLY wavy and flexible. While some of us did a mini short animal performance, the others were the musicians! Rolled and ran around the studio with my cleaning shrimp (Anna), while waiting for her to well… clean me. 

The animal movement exercise came to an end and we had to start making models of the movement itself. And here is mine!

To start off with my movement, Ribbon Eel only swims laterally, and has this really ribbony repetitive effect while moving.  There’s curves, just like how a ribbon dance will look like. 

On to the sculpture making! My sculpture is as obvious as it can get, and I tried to make it as long as 1m, which is the real length of a ribbon eel. But i felt that I shouldn’t waste so much paper heh. 

But anyhow, I tried to mimic the curves of the Ribbon Eel while it is swimming and had it’s head shot up, as if it’s ready to attack it’s prey. Because, when a Ribbon Eel is about to grab it’s prey, it will sprung up, like a spring, to scoop down the poor creature. 

3D | Dialogue in the Dark

Last Friday, we went to Ngee Ann Polytechnic for the Dialogue in the Dark session. It’s my 2nd time attending this session as I went there during my Polytechnic days as an excursion as well. Nevertheless, I was still as excited to experience it once more!

Here’s my experience graphs:
Please click for a better view!

Happiness Chart

The little symbols of sight, taste, smell and touch are senses that I’ve used for the various areas. So lets begin a little more detailed sharing shall we?

Spatial Chart

Entrance
We were given our own walking sticks and it’s really cool that they provided two different heights of sticks. It’s white, smooth to touch and have a certain weight to it, definitely not light. We walked through the curtains and was soon enveloped with the darkness. I was kinda freaking out as I’m not really fond of the darkness… so I had to hold on to Anna for extra security hahaha. But! Our guide soon appeared and her soothing voice sort of make all of our panicky hearts calmer.

We were told to follow and feel the felt walls by our sides, and had to hold the sticks with our right hand which really frustrates me as I’m a left hander 🙁 The beginning made me felt kinda frustrated and confused as I kept bumping into the walls.

Park
Finally! We start to hear some civilisation! Well not exactly, but nature, with the birds singing softly in the background as we walked closer to this new area. The smooth floor gradually changed into gravel and I was taken aback with something brushing against my arm, which I figured out was leaves hahahaha. Initially I thought it was fake leaves as it felt kinda like those daiso fabric leaves, but apparently it’s real and they are pandan leaves. We were brought to a bench, and had to sit down (kinda scary) because there’s a sudden change in height and I was afraid that I might fall flat on my butt. But anyhow, we sat on benches while the birds singing surrounds us~ which I really like as it made me felt comfortable as it is familiar.

Sir Stamford Raffles
There were something cold protruding and we started feeling it. We knew it was alphabets and couldn’t figure out what it says, until someone said there’s a “S I R” here! And I was like, “SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES!” Yep we got that right hahaha. It’s the sculpture of Stamford Raffles! The alphabets were probably made in metal as it’s cool and smooth to touch?

Bridge
We had to walk away from the walls and felt ropes around our waist and we proceeded to walk to this shaky wooden bridge. There were sounds of waves and water, splashing softly in the background – since I came here before… I knew it was the boat scene which was my favourite!

Boat
We were guided slowly into the boat, and onto this U-shape bench which was a sudden change in height, felt a little scary as I couldn’t feel where was the bench in the beginning because it was too low! Soon, everyone of us were huddled closely together (how cozy). The motor engine started roaring and we were moving!! There was wind and the boat also rocks that enhances the experience of a boat ride, really cool! We guessed that we are in the Singapore River and while the guide started explaining the iconic areas near the river, music started playing as it slowly drifted away. So guess what, we actually passed by Clarke Quay!

But suddenly, we hear another engine coming near us and there was a sudden SPLASH – with real water at us. And wow that was an experience, it felt really real. I’m still as impressed even though its my second time here. The boat ride ended and we headed to the next area.

Road
We were sort of rushing for time thus this place and the later areas went on in a blur… I couldn’t remember which events went first but lets just say, the road. We had to cross the road, even though it’s fake, IT FELT REALLY SCARY. Someone had to press the button while we listened carefully to the traffic light beeps before crossing the road. Soon, we started feeling this biggggg object which has a smooth and cold touch to it, couldn’t really identify what it was until I touched the side mirror of it – so its a car! Followed by this triangular, leathery 3D object, and it was quite obvious to me that it’s a bicycle.

Market
I think this was a new segment as I didn’t recall having experience a market place a few years back? But anyhow, I picked up this sachet, with drawstrings felt some motifs printed on it. Put it near my nose and smelled it (BAD DECISION), it was some sort of super strong-smelling spice which I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Followed by, touching an apple and orange! We were later taught on how to differentiate red and green apple through their bottoms and the texture. Green apple are much smoother than red apples.

Cafe
The last stop! I remembered I didn’t quite like the cafe part back then… and now, I still didn’t feel comfortable during the cafe stop, I’m not sure why 🙁 Probably it’s because of the smell? I don’t know why but it makes me feel all insecure and uncomfortable. But lets put that aside. We actually ordered our food, and paid for it in the dark. Wow and I felt really brave to order a hot chocolate, because, isn’t it ballsy enough to take a hot drink when you can’t see anything at all!? We went to sit at the couch, which I felt really cramped and constricted 🙁 not sure why either. The freaky part is, I’m supposed to stir my drink and I was sooooo scared I’ll spill it. But luckily, it all went well. Also had to feel where’s the mouth piece before drinking it.

A mock up with we on how we felt about the space!

Overall for the DID experience, I’m very impressed!! Even though it’s my 2nd time experiencing it, I’m still blown away by how much effort was put in for this exhibition itself. It really made me appreciate my senses more now and that I should not only rely on my sight, I should also make more use of my other senses like my hearing and smell. 

I’ve always been more inclined in trying to make Singapore a elder-friendly place but now then I realised, we ain’t doing much to cater to the blind or the people with special needs here. We should of course, further explore ways, and ideas to make a better living environment for everyone. 

3D | Ribbon Eel Research

The ribbon eel (Rhinomuraena quaesita), also known as the leaf-nosed moray eel or bernis eel, is a species of moray eel, the only member of the genus Rhinomuraena. It is quite possible the more bizarre eels on the planet. This certain kind of eel will not only change colours, it changes sexes!

Depending on the stage of the ribbon eel’s life it may appear black, blue and or yellow. They grow to one meter / 3.3 feet in length and can live up to 20 years in the wild. 

Changing of Genders

All ribbon eels start off as male and are black with a yellow dorsal fin. As they mature, the male eels turn mostly bright blue with yellow accents around the mouth and on the dorsal fin. The changes don’t stop there. After the male’s body reaches a certain length, it begins to turn yellow and will develop female parts until it is able to lay eggs. They are hermaphrodites.

Where They Live

Ribbon eels tend to live in lagoons or coastal reefs throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from East Africa to French Polynesia, as far north as southern Japan, and south to Australia and New Caledonia. Sadly, ribbon eels are sometimes captured for aquariums and rarely survive longer than one month in captivity.

Size

Ribbon eels are known to stay in the same hole for months or even years.The ribbon eel grows to an overall length of approximately 1 m (3.3 ft), and has a life span of up to twenty years. As the adult male reaches full size (approximately 1 metre), it begins to turn into a female, and turns yellow. It will then mate, lay eggs, and die within about a month. Due to this short lifespan, female ribbon eels are a relatively rare sight.

How They Feed & Prey

Ribbon eels are carnivores, preying on small fish and other marine creatures.  They can attract their prey with their flared nostrils and then clamp down on them with their strong jaws and retreat into their burrows.

These ribbon eels will bury themselves in the sand or even hide in reefs and rocks waiting for their prey to swim by. Then it will lunge out with impressive speed to catch unsuspecting smaller fish. Check out how they feed in the video below.

Sense of Smell

Morays have an excellent sense of smell which compensates for their bad eyesight, and their nares (nostrils) are developed into tubes. They use their great olfactory system to find and catch their prey. Some species, like the blue ribbon eel above, have nostrils that expand in a fan-like shape to capture more of the passing scents.

Their Body

The skin of morays contains no scales. The term “slippery as an eel’ is very appropriate, since the skin produces large amounts of mucus, or slime. The mucus protects the skin from abrasion against rocks. 

Two Sets of Jaws

Moray eels have two sets of jaws. The outer jaws, or oral jaws, grab hold of the prey. The inner jaws, known as pharyngeal jaws, then move forward from the throat into the mouth and grasp the prey. The paryngeal jaws move the prey to the esophagus, where it’s swallowed.

Small Gills

Moray eels have small gills. They have to rhythmically open their mouth in a gaping motion to allow sufficient water to flow into their mouth, over the gills (which extract oxygen from the water) and out through the gill opening on each side of their body. Because morays often open their mouths very wide during respiration, people who don’t know how moray eels breathe sometimes think that the fish are being aggressive and are preparing to bite.