Sound art is usually set as an installation, because they’re not really a better way to appreciate this type of artistic discipline by discipline ourselves before the medium. Just like any other art, sound art does not required to be publicly-accepted-melodious conventionally, we can find its inspiration from daily routines, places we can’t experience as we like, or places we will never be. Whether or not the sound art is engaging is what we can appreciate from the piece. What’s amazing that sound art can be appreciate with and without our vision, or more like, the audio experience are the main body of the art but enhanced by the visual aesthetics of the artwork.

Since the visit to SAM, I’ve encountered several pieces of sound art, such as

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Raising Spirits and Restoring Souls (left, 2015) by Zulkifle Mahmod and Too Far, Too Near (right, 2015) by Ong Kian Peng. The two pieces are the first two sound art I’ve ever encountered, and they have always stuck in my head for sometimes after the visit. However, since I’m able to research for more sound art overseas, I decided to surf the web and explore this medium.

Among the results I found, I find Lola Gielen’s Neo (A music instrument everybody can play.) more interesting than others.

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Lola Gielen, a newly graduated product designer from the Design Academy in Eindhoven, created her instrument named NEO with a Raspberry Pi computer running on Python script. The python allows the Raspberry CPU to process the sensors for both the instrument and extra attachments’ sensors. The instrument is simple to play by placing the beads contained in the center onto the little pits on the main body, a rhythmic looping music will then start playing accordingly to the placement of the beads. This music are just composed to simple notes and the tighter the beads are placed apart, the faster the rhythm will be.

The piece resonances with people who are not talented in musical instruments like me. The intention behind this piece are clearly claimed in the title, a musical instrument which everyone can play. The artist wanted to give a musical experience for people who don’t regularly have time and talent to play instruments. Viewers are able to interact with the instrument while create a unique piece of music through different arrangement of the beads. It is similar to computer coding/looping software but the users can make the simpler version of digital music on the spot without any computing devices. This blurs the line between the touchable traditional instruments and digital instruments.

I find this piece interesting as it has an attractive interactivity and functionality. It also breaks the limitation of music creation as creating music won’t be exclusive to people who can play instruments. It can be educational for children or music amateurs and introduced the wonders of sound and music effectively to both groups of people.

Thanks for reading.

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Mini Bookshelf Visitors (2016)

Junyuan Loo

35 Paper-cut outs with colored paper stands.

Inspired by Michael Lee Hong Hwee’s mini figures, the installation is made up of 35 papercut mini figures, secured with paper-stands. Each mini figure is unique, symbolizing the 35 weeks of being an ADM student. Most mini figures are designed to be place on the head of various books with their paper stands stuck between the pages. Viewers are welcomed to place the figures in other books to have them interact with different books and other figures. (While placing these figures, some require the selected books to be pulled half way from the shelves for a better effect.) If viewers are interested to the books that the figures are placed, please place the figure to a new book or relevant location as its initial state instead of placing it aside. This will help to keep the installation in its intended installment.

The installation explores the feeling of intrigued and curiosity a library visitors can get through browsing the bookshelves. When one is browsing the book spine’s title without any library number codes in mind, one can always find book titles that is enticing the viewer, with hopes that the book’s content could surprise more.  The installation was designed to engage similar thoughts and anticipation, leading the viewers with its quirkiness from one figure to another, discovering fun and interest within the shelves.


The work is accompanied by instructions to have the viewers interacts with the figures but handle them with care while doing so. Many fellow classmates reviewed that they might be blocking people who are seeking books or neglected by people who look for books by the code numbers. Therefore, I consider this installation as a social experiment of the relationship between installations and library visitors. Since most installations were installed at the side of people’s daily routine, what interaction will produce if the installation was installed between the visitors and their targeted books?

At the end of the installation period, 12pm April 15th, I went to the location to collect my figures, and the following scenery was discovered.

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As you can see, many of them were misplaced, pulled out, attempted to be placed back the original locations, roughly handled and placed aside. (Fortunately, none of them went missing.) The phenomena are sort of within my expectation except the one with the book “From Pinewood to Hollywood”. I was delighted as I saw the book was placed by one of the visitors for the walk-and-browse figure. Although this is the only positive outcome from the attempted interaction, I was still cheered from previous frustration. My interest towards this form of art was thus heighten again.

The Library is one of the most interesting I had in 4D module because I have never approached with installation art before. I am grateful to Mr. Michael Tan for giving us this opportunity to try out this medium. I had a lot of fun (while exhausted in the making) as mentioned by Mr. Michael. This will be another experience of the module I won’t forget.

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PS: I thank NTU Library for sharing my work onto their Facebook Page, it’s a great honor and thank Mr. Michael Tan for informing the good news!!

Thanks for reading!

Since everyone was so far ahead of the updates, I am gonna do a quick summarized update for my project 3 – The Library in ONE post.

Thinking of an installation art about the library is no easy task. This location is very common to anyone who has been a student, yet many of the library visitor has different perspective of the place. The ADM library is rather the most special library among our universities library. This can be due to its special layout design, use of spaces, functionality of different region, and also the research materials it contains. It’s pretty obvious for ADM library’s specialty so I won’t talk too much about it.

When it comes to conceptualizing, I’ve always like to start from my point of view. For me, the library is a place for homework, individual concentration, research paper brainstorming, and research materials searching. I always spend my extra time in the library. (only if I waiting for certain event to start and I have no sustainable leisure alternatives such as my laptop around me. ) What I like to do in the library is surfing through the shelves, and see if there’s any book titles on their spines that catch my attention. It’s kinda like surfing the internet without intentions but you do it in the real life.

SO most of my ideas originate from the act of surfing the bookshelves.

1. see through the shelf 2. obstacle 3. obstacle 2 4. I rather 1 5. I rather 2 6. blind search

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I thought about the views we’ve missed when we search for the books, the layers of space formed by the holes that’s formed by the books and the shelves. And then there’s the inevitable obstacle set by people who were too focus on their chosen books and unintentionally blocked the pathways. The space I’ve mentioned in the first one also caught my attention and I wonder if I can express how certain series of books have lost their timeliness due to constant technological upgrades. I’ve also wanted to play with searching action by deliberately covering the paths to increase the difficulty of my “bookshelves surfing”.

The responses from I got from Mr. Michael Tan, is that these works can be improved in terms of directed perspective, importance, and relational attributes. Several artist works are also introduced such as Michael Lee Hong Hwee and Robert Gober,

Finally I’ve chosen the idea of placing little figures around the shelves that stimulates my idea of bookshelves surfing. The decision is based on removing the installation ideas that isn’t manageable, completely curated, and relevant to the whole 4D modules. The little figures concept is inspired by Michael Lee Hong Hwee’s work as he printed out many scaled down versions of him and set them “free to play around”. I wanted to try the concept with my own interpretation and context.

The challenges of the work is the consideration I needed to take on about the work’s detailed presentation. This includes the amount of the little figures, their presentations, and their consistent actions to fit my theme. I will have the mock ups completed within the following week.

Thanks for reading and please look forward to my updates!

It’s difficult to talk about a residence in a deeply manner without staying more than a day. In my case, however, a total of 4 hours after three visits is what I get. I can’t complain about the 2 hours of traveling which required switching between 3 transportation lines as this kampong is the subject I chose, and I have to find the theme out of it.

So I think the third trip kinda proofs that ideas will come to you by itself. I kept getting something new in every trip. When I try to investigate some aspect of the kampong, the kampong put me down at some point and came up with another point for me to make. Long story short, the idea for the video is born.

The whole video format is inspired by video essayists on Youtube who narrate their subjects and sometimes interact with what they edited. So, it’s my first self-narrating video, please pardon my tones and accent.

When a type place became rare, people are ensured to make a big deal about it. This is my answer to what I try to contribute for the kampong’s overdone status. This video focus mainly on one random interviewee, and usually the representative, Auntie Sun is the one who do the explaining. When a random villager has the same issue with their as what the representative said, this issue can be proven kampongwide. (Auntie Sun told the same zoom-in-to-a-grandma-house story on my second kampong trip.)

I hope that it came out sort of like a public announcement, not to leave them alone, but respect them as a residency of Singapore. They don’t mind their kampong is famous, but worried that their peaceful life style is affected for the rest of their retirement.

 

As I returned from my hometown village for Chinese New Year, I was curious about whether there’s a similar kampong in Singapore since Malaysia and Singapore shares a similar cultural history. In Malaysia, there’s hundreds of kampongs just for the Chinese, as they were one of the tactics conducted by the British to isolate the Communist military troops from their families and relatives food supplies and medical aids. We called them Kampung Baru as in New Villages.

Once the keywords, “Singapore kampong” were inserted into the search engine, Google showed plenty of web articles referring the “Last Kampong in Singapore”, Kampong Lorong Buangkor. The results did not surprise me much as it was expected for a developed country like Singapore. However, it intrigued me for being the last spot where I can witness a living history of Singapore’s urbanization. Not to mention, the observable contrast of modernization must be so obvious as it is located in the middle of a town.

During the Valentines Day, I began my search through some taps on Google Maps. A train ride to Khatib and a bus ride to Gerald Drive, within 2 hours, I reached my destinations. Unlike Malaysia’s Kampongs which usually have a big gate welcoming the visitors, Kampong Lorong Buangkor has a sign that points towards their one and only surau. (As shown in the video.)

The housing area was unorganized, there’s no finely paved roads, and there’s not much informative locations I can ask about. That’s why for this first trip to the location, I went stealth mode, which was basically filming the kampong stealthily. Fortunately, no one was standing in the outdoors at 12 noon but me. So, all the from the lorong to the end of the kampong, it was just me with my camera, walking through awkwardly. I did see some villagers on the way but I didn’t establish any conversation. This is because I was wandering about my topics for this project.

The second topic I was considering, was the buskers in Singapore, mainly concentrated in Orchard area. I’ve only found three of the frequent buskers by the time I visited the locations provided by the Internet. It was a raining afternoon which caused many of the buskers stayed home. Few of them who do street performing for living or publicity stayed around their spot while others didn’t show up. There’s another factor that my buskers didn’t go well. It is because I relied on articles and information on the Internet for past times. Many of the sources are at least one year old. Thus, some may have change their locations and did not have a platform to confirm their updates.

Therefore, there’s a few challenges for the future of my Singapore Diaries. Which theme I’m doing? In what format shall I present my narratives? What would be my content and context? And how should I establish them?

There are lots of questions worth brainstorming. So stay tuned….

How This Is NOT My Home (Yet)

8 A4 size photos on plain papers.

So this was the original title I had in mind. Although not as far as from China, my hometown is far enough to stimulate homesickness. I adapted the hostel living with my own set of routine in order to help me stimulate how I lived in my home sweet home. Yes, home is a comfortable place, but is not always the most exciting place. To show and tell, I decided on using a first person view to let the viewers see what I see. I found using my most wide-angled lens won’t achieved the stimulating effect I wanted, therefore I thought, I should include my arms into the shots as we don’t always put our arms behind our backs. It also created the effect of impossible POV shots, which later responded during the presentation in January 18th.

 

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This is not my home because I woke up knowing my family members is not under the same roof.

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This is not my home because my breakfast is almost the same everyday and I can surf the internet while eating without being nagged.

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This is not my home because I am paranoid about whether if I locked my door. I invented a way to keep my future-self reminded by leaving a red mark that will last at least 30 minutes with the blades of my keys after I double checked my lock.

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This is not my home because this is not the most comfortable place for my personal business.

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This is not my home because I have to buy my own meals and definitely having people to eat dinner with isn’t guaranteed. Therefore buying a takeaway to my room is justification of the later.

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This is not my home because I get to see my friends whenever I wanted and tend to be more available for hanging outs. Friends have always been the family from outside, they’re the ones that get me through the strangeness in new environments.

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This is not my home because I don’t have to maintain the decent tidiness in my bedroom. I developed the habit of throwing my keys on my bed whenever I enter my room. Although it’s a small gesture, but this shows I’m gradually adapting this new HOME-to-be.

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This is not my home because taking a shower indicates the end of my day while at home, a shower is a preparation for a trip. A shower have became the moment to recap my day.

For task 2, I edited the photos into a slideshow, accompanied with sounds I’ve collected with my phone, in order to enhance the imitation of my life experiences.

However, there are many limitations in my work, such as what I described for my task 1 are tough to be seen in the photos noted composition without my presentation. In the video, the lack of variation of still images make it hard for viewers to stay through. I intended to show the silence I adapted with sounds but without further informative signs, it can be misinterpreted as showing my loneliness with daily life. I admit there was loneliness in the first few months but I later found being alone isn’t always an unendurable situation. Yet I was not able to convey this message through my slideshows, proving it’s not enough with simple sounds and limited amount of still image. There are many more signs to add for my video to be understandable. As the reviewing of my class said, “A layer of me, my context and content is needed.”

Thanks for reading.

With the worries of missing the TIME OF OTHERS exhibition, I went to the Singapore Art Museum on the day it ends, 28th February 2016. I missed the group visit on Monday, but I found visiting the museum alone had its perks. I do like to go in groups, but going solo has the same feeling you get when you watch a movie alone. Maybe I’ll talk about this in the future.

The two pieces I wanted to review are both for the TIME OF OTHERS.

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Herman Chong

Calendars (2020-2096)

1001 pages of usable future calendars, installed in a grid covering the walls of the entire room. All pages are offset prints with matte lamination. Within the 30x30cm surface, 80 percent of the prints are covered with photos of Singapore street views. The other 20 percent are calendars for 77 years starting from 2020. Due to the size and amount of its single pages, the whole piece is enormous and eye catching. With its photography components, it attracts viewers who have the effort to look through every single photo on the calendars. Seeing the piece not as a whole but as an album.

The initial impression I got from the piece is its scale and number. I gasped for its enormity at first, then I try to find its specialty. In my common impression, calendars are full with breathtaking iconic city-scape photos or beautiful illustration. (Usually related to the calendars’ company products.) However, the piece chooses unconventional photos as its content. The locations shown in the photos are not remarkable landmarks or at least not worth a selfie to be taken in. These place are street image from a citizen perspective. (Mostly one-point-perspective, probably the artist’s obsessive style of shooting.) My initial guess is, the artist wanted us to be aware of these places. Through the attachment of calendars, perhaps the artist tries to remind us that these neglected places will not remain the same as shown in the photos. This is our current generation’s version of commemorating-sceneries-in-the-past calendar for the future. The calendar format also explained why none of the location overlapped or repeated.

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I supposed choosing locations from all over Singapore is a way to engage interaction with the audience. Audience will be delighted if a place they knew was shown on within the 1001 pages, just like I did for these two locations.

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Once I saw a familiar locations, I’ll continue to finish the viewing to find more. Either it’s intentional or not, it certainly propose such effect with the viewers.

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After the reading of the descriptions, I find a new perspective of the piece. It does hit me with another point of view, when I finally realized there’s no human figures in each photo.

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I thought these are exceptions at first glance. (Turns out they’re a paper model and a mannequin.)

I was impressed on how the artist take advantages on Singapore city traits to create a contrasting work to ask questions about urbanized space. My first guess deviated a lot from the artist intent mainly because I focused on what the artist trying to show, not what the artist trying to question. I wouldn’t be able to ask the same question as the artist as we see things differently. But the description certainly helps my understanding and invoke the artist’s question into my mind while I watch the piece again.

The medium was effective, as the description stated, the calendar format did show the “time” concept of the work. But it’s difficult for me to ask questions about belonging of manifested “time” and calendars or representing of spaces, as I can’t tell from the clues. I do think maybe exhibit the work in the form of actual usable calendars might improve my understanding of the mentioned questions.

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No Endings

Ringo Bunoan

Endings and No Endings.

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Endings

Endings, framed book pages of possible the last pages of novels and fictions. Arranged and attached in a way that the origins of the pages are unclear. Viewers can definitely confirm they’re last pages as the phrase “THE END” was constantly shown. The pages are placed on one long rack, overlapping on each other.

No Endings, on the other hand, is a pile of at least 100 books stacked till the pile reaches the ceiling. The varying thickness and color of their pages shows each and every book are different and yet the most interesting part of the work is, every spine of the books was facing the wall, leaving no clue for each book’s identity.

The dim light setting and my hurried pacing gave me no motivation to read through every words. There are even half of the pages are blocked. Therefore I concluded from first glance that the work are not for reading but to observe it as a whole, in contrary with my previous reviewed piece.

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The pages from Endings were framed and placed on a long horizontal rack. From the installment, I’ve wondered, is it trying to be a long narrative? A narrative without any beginnings, progresses, but endings, is maybe the work’s inspiration. As for the tower of stacked books, I was guessing whether if the last pages from Endings were in fact from these pile of books, which explains the second work’s title, ‘all these books have no endings, as the endings are removed.’ That’s a literal interpretation. With the urge of wanting to know what questions the artist propose, I read the description right away.

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“What is closure without context?” That’s the final question. The description actually clarified my wonders. IT does proposed a question and that question can be applied in many aspects of life. What is closure without context to me is like asking what answer without questions is? In contrary, what’s a question without an answer? Questions without an answer are thought to be ambiguous, like story without endings, like the final question the artist had asked. Ambiguity works for certain people who like to imagine their version of endings, engaging a discussion about which version is legitimate or closer to the author’s intention. Endings or closure without premises and context are interesting as well. They spark imaginations and proposed more stories that lead to the same ending. Books especially published fictions are indeed the best medium to convey the artist, and I think the artist chose well. I personally think showing only the last pages is an interesting idea. It can be a collection of literature to start various creations, like how many lyricists from the Song Dynasty created many version of Ci 词 (lyrics) for the same melody. (Ci Pai 词牌)

In conclusion, I chose 2 pieces from the same exhibition as I find TIME OF OTHERS are more compelling than the other installations. It is mostly because I am keener in reading stories of others. Also, it’s better to visit the other two installations in groups for the best experience as they require group activities and discussion on the spot. TIME OF OTHERS as a narrative installation, is more suitable for solo visitors to read the stories in their own pace.

Thanks for reading.

The following “dance movements” are rated PG-13. A “dance” for our first class activity of our first module of our second semester. Based on some of my personality traits, such as randomness, laziness, and interest in improvisations. Many thanks to my buddies, Zactee and JOAN for helping me out with the video.

Previous project:

The Emerald City – Trailer.