Finally, the final project. This project was rather challenging since I have a little experience in exhibitions and IM stuff. I teamed up with Vincent and Nicholas for this project.

Idea

So our idea is to show art could connect different people. No matter how different people are, there will always be something in common between them, which is why diversity is not a barrier for us to connect. Hence, we decided to use literature to bond different people from different places. A literature piece shows how everyone can experience the story in their own unique ways, based on their personal lives and perspectives, yet the experience can also be shared universally through a staged performance. The subjects were no other than ourselves; since Vincent is from China, Nic is from Singapore, and I am from Indonesia

Concept

We wanted to use 3 screens for each individual + 1 big screen which will tell the literature that is used. We’re gonna interview each one of us regarding the literature and this will be shown in the 3 screens. And here’s the catch – we’re gonna do it with our respective languages. Not only that, we will connect the interviews by combining this interviews. We connect the contents and make it alternating, take turns. So the audience would focus on one screen. The connection on contents is to show that no matter how different we all are, we will still have something in common. Such as the messages we got, some of them are overlapping. And we won’t script this interview, to make it more natural and real. For the 3 screens, we decided to use 3 laptops with similar shapes. Same shapes are to show unity and connection. We didn’t use 3 big screens because we felt that using screens during our interviews will give some distance with the audience. Which we all thought that this will be less personal. Especially, a laptop is an object that the audience – other students – have. So, this will give the audience a sense of familiarity and hence, relate to the content. For the story, we chose a classic and famous story called “The Old Man and the Sea.” For the big screen, we narrate a part of the story to give a gist to the audience of what’s the story about.

Execution

This is our first concept.

This style of installation is inspired by a Chinese program ‘The Reader‘（朗读者）It is a television show whereby people are invited to narrate a piece of literature or short story, related to their life experiences. Whether they be famous, accomplished in science and technology, or just common people, these people have an inspirational quality that allows their narration to touch us emotionally, often producing strong reactions in the audiences.

But then again, we’re going to add subtitles to each of our screens. So this kind of setup would make the audience confused. So we decided to put all three laptops on one table, next to each other. Then at the front is the big screen. The big screen plays after all 3 combined interviews fade out. We also put some books with different languages on the table, to emphasize literature and diversity.

Narrating Script

From The Old man and the Sea

By Ernest Hemmingway

When the boy came back the old man was asleep in the chair and the sun was down. The boy

took the old army blanket off the bed and spread it over the back of the chair and over the old man’s shoulders. They were strange shoulders, still powerful although very old, and the neck was still strong too and the creases did not show so much when the old man was asleep and his head fallen forward. His shirt had been patched so many times that it was like the sail and the patches were faded to many different shades by the sun. The [18] old man’s head was very old though and with his eyes closed there was no life in his face. The newspaper lay across his knees and the weight of his arm held it there in the evening breeze. He was barefooted.

The boy left him there and when he came back the old man was still asleep.

“Wake up old man,” the boy said and put his hand on one of the old man’s knees.

The old man opened his eyes and for a moment he was coming back from a long way away.

Then he smiled.

“What have you got?” he asked.

“Supper,” said the boy. “We’re going to have supper.”

“I’m not very hungry.”

“Come on and eat. You can’t fish and not eat.”

“I have,” the old man said getting up and taking the newspaper and folding it. Then he started

to fold the blanket.

“Keep the blanket around you,” the boy said. “You’ll not fish without eating while I’m alive.”

Reflection

This is an interesting project. Especially I got to improve my premiere pro skills! Also, it’s nice to use the diverse in our members as a part of the project. It was pretty challenging, as all of us have different opinions and ideas. And, not to forget, language barrier. Yes, it was pretty tiring but I felt grateful that it is now over and we already did our best! Cheers!