This reading introduced ideosis, with what can be seen as an autocratic or nonautocratic system. For this case Krzysztof Wodiczko’s works calls out what is normalised in a democracy by giving a voice to those have been silenced by social, economic issues using his work Homeless Vehicles as an example. The disection and elaboration of the term Critical Vehicle and also the concept of abandoning machines in whole and covering ground on foot as a new kind of “productivism”. The explanation of Interrogative Design by disecting living experiences and with the aim to present both sides of the circumstance, what is happening now, the negatives and how to stop it from happening again. An interesting portrayal of art as democratic, a way of new xenology or foreign normalisation, breaking away the old norm. The referencing to past avant grande practices and the change public spaces with monuments over time.

Link to slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19KPMI8BsXPk9WZoxkl1Rm_IZwcrS6FK3RbDs6I2YHPU/preview

Upon reading the first few words of the reading, “virtual opening architecture, the city, the body and technology” intrigued me on what could Lozano’s works be. My first thoughts based on those words especially “virtual opening” and “architecture” was it could have been something related to light projection? Using environment around it to create a virtual opening? Or something done with AR as well? The reading explores further into the artist’s use of technology and how this helps helps him in his works to transform an architecture’s preset narrative by effecting how it is perceived by people. It also shows how the possible interactions and reactions between the people in the architecture and his works. The unpredictable play between the audience and his works and also how this influences the space used be the audience becoming more aware of this virtual space and the “outside”.

This reading has opened my mind about race and culture in Singapore. It has never crossed my mind to think about how at birth we have been assigned to a race, but even know may know nothing of it. So what defines Singapore culture? My thought on Singapore being a multiracial country is it has given us chance to be exposed to such a unique culture of its own, a culture that are more accepting of differences. Though with these differences, there can be divisions of races but this can be seen as a mix of races that sharing the same culture, especially through the celebrations of multi religious holidays, education like the need to learn the English language (to allow a common language amongst everyone), this leading to Singlish, a mother tongue language (to better know/learn about your race), and the government itself on doing their best to create equality amongst everyone. The reading also mentioned guest workers and citizenship in Singapore. I agree that despite Malay being Singapore’s ‘national language’ it is hardly spoken let alone studied by anyone other than Malays. As my father has learnt a bit of the Malay language on his own, I feel it would be interesting for Singaporeans to learn the basics as the language is a part of Singapore, perhaps on par with history class in primary schools to have a better understanding of our culture in Singapore.

I agree with the reading describing Space being an abstract term for a complex set of ideas especially how it is perceived and measure may differentiate from people. How space can be organised, that one may find comfort in a cluttered small bedroom, however to another may find it messy and suffocating to be in. The reading helps further understand the human body with relation toward space and time being such as when one is active or at rest affecting orientation and considering points in space subconsciously. It also explained hierarchy through place and space, which reminded me of the movie parasite which shows the difference in hierarchy/class not only through the colours but also by the amount and level of space the respective people live in (e.g a mansion like house with a yard and an underground basement).

There’s also the defining of one’s ambient space front-back and right-left regions be it spiritual, belief or objective. Spatial prepositions also shows how we perceive or describe objects in space, from location, volume and distance. There’s also the questioning of the amount spaciousness with relation to the feeling of openness and freedom if the addition of other people will affect it. I view that the feeling of openness and freedom is not only affected by the volume of people or space and there are other variables (such as social relations) that play a part. However, focusing only on population density and crowding, this can be dependent as the total volume of people occupying a volume of space they are in.