19 KNIGHTSBRIDGE, 2008, 10min
A vaguely ethnographic day-in-the-life film on the Ogawas, a family living in Seletar Airbase. Since then, a third of the community there has disappeared and their rented black-and-white style houses torn down to build an airspace hub. Thanks Ogawa family & YC.
CHAIR, 2009, 30sec
Hastily-produced spot for a church youth event, inspired by a fallen chair. The idea was to use this everyday object as a light-hearted metaphor of a new platform for expression. Thanks Josh, Jason & Plasticsoldierfactory.com.
DESIGNTHINKING.SG
My ex-place of work ran a Design Thinking Symposium with speakers from IDEO, the Stanford d.school, Parsons & Businessweek,
as an introduction to human-centred design for the curious. Thanks Mark & Weepin.
DESIGN THINKING BOOTCAMP
1 of 4-part video of Alex Ko’s workshop at the Design Thinking Symposium ’09 organized by UNION, a past place of work. Click Vimeo link to view all. Copyright Design Thinking Symposium & Stanford d.school 2009. Thanks Alex Ko.
MAKING DESIGN THINKING HAPPEN
4 of 4-part video of Alex Kazaks & Alex Ko’s talk at the same event, outlining method, application, and why Design Thinking is soooo California. Click Vimeo link to view all. Copyright Design Thinking Symposium & Stanford d.school 2009. Thanks Alex-es.
COMMONPEOPLE.SG
Common People was an online platform of in-depth video interviews with artists, designers, musicians,
creative startups, fashion people etc. It was an experiment with friends to investigate and inspire
creativity in Singapore. Here are some videos from the collab. Thanks YC, Meng, Michele & Sera.
STRANGELETS, 2009
Strangelets are the particles that will run through the universe and reorder everything. It’s also a select store on Amoy Street with well-crafted design objects. Husband-and-wife architects Josh Comaroff and Ong Ker-Shing run a charming setup: design practice to the back, and a sexy shopfront. They tell us why they set it up, how they keep it running, and surprising, personal stories behind a few favorite objects. Thanks Josh, Shing & Strangelets partners.
RAW KITCHEN, 2009
Raw Kitchen is a restaurant-bar housed at the back of the old Bukit Timah Fire Station that served up killer Japanese-Puerto Rican food and then moved on to a new concept in 2011. Flanked by a nature reserve and fitted with custom-made furniture and colorful artwork on unfinished concrete, Raw was intimate, raw. Javier Perez talks about breathing life into the building, creating the menu, and what it means to enjoy a meal. Thanks Javier.
FACEHUNTER, 2008
It’s easy to start a fashion blog, but keeping the global-trend-hunting fans happy is a different thing altogether. Somehow hipster documenter / jetsetter Yvan Rodic, through his blog Facehunter, manages to do that. Caught him on his first visit to Singapore in late 2008 and managed to get him to try on some CdG at the now-closed Guerilla Store on Mount Sophia. Thanks Yvan Rodic & WERK.
B-QUARTET, 2009
Every society needs its bards, who can distil the spirit of the times and churn it out in the form of spellbinding lyrics, beats and melody. B-Quartet are a band of brothers who blend progressive rock, metal, jazz and funk. In this interview, spliced with footage from an open air concert, they talk about forming the band, experimenting to develop their musical language, and the quest for meaning behind what they do. Thanks B-Quartet.
HANS OP DE BEECK, 2008
Hans Op de Beeck on location at Location (6), an installation of an infinite snowscape. He creates universal landscapes that are both recognizable and anonymous, distilled to their barest elements: an empty scene at traffic lights in the middle of the night, inside a motorway restaurant -- that reverse the viewer's view towards themselves and evoke a kind of unconscious introspection. Thanks to Hans, Jasper Lutin & Stijn Maes.
HEMAN CHONG, 2008
Heman Chong’s installation in a former volunteer corps camp off Beach Road consist of a 10m-long white billboard, 4 rooms with 3,000 stickers laid out in geometrical formation on the walls, and a sea of 250,000 black name cards filling the entire floor space of the installation. He chats about his process and position as an artist, about forgetting, and why clever ideas aren't always so.Thanks Heman.
HANS PETER KUHN, 2008
Hans Peter Kuhn is big in the environmental art landscape. He uses sound, light, simple lines, color, and minimalist constructions to harmonize with the surroundings dramatically. He talks about past work, the properties of light and sound, responding to architecture and the site in his making process, and the idea of emptying one's mind as a starting point for creativity. Thanks Hans.
MARIELE NEUDECKER, 2008
Filming the sunset and sunrise simultaneously. Immersing fiberglass-cast mountain landscapes in tanks shrouded in mist. Mariele Neudecker constructs breathtaking landscapes within a gallery space. She talks about the line between physical and metaphysical, on how the basic physical and chemical contents of her tank pieces can amount to a magical, constructed reality. Thanks Mariele.
DIRK FLEISCHMANN, 2008
Dirk Fleischmann’s project, myfashionindustries, showed at Front Row in Ann Siang Hill, where he conceptualized and manufactured a limited edition shirt in a free trade zone in the Philippines. He structures his practice as a “diversified holding structure,” and combines financial and intellectual “turnover” by renvesting his profits into next works, weaving a kind of systems art practice and ethical border exploration.
FUMIO NANJO, 2008
Mori Art Museum and Singapore Biennale 2006-8 director Fumio Nanjo talks about the difference between public art and large international art exhibitions, the role governments and corporations can play to keep a biennale going, and how art can offer us alternate perspectives and pleasures. Thanks Fumio.
SHIRAISHI, 2008
SCAI The Bathhouse founder-president Masami Shiraishi set up SCAI in a historic former bathhouse in Ueno in 1993 to introduce Japanese artists to the world and the Japanese public to international contemporary art. He shares insights on public art, aesthetics, his role in the art scene, working with young people, and the many factors that contribute to a healthy art scene in a city. Thanks Masami & Yurika.
FORTUNE COOKIE PROJECTS, 2008
Fortune Cookie Projects are a curatorial and art advisory outfit run by Howard Rutkowski and Mary Dinaburg. After a successful run of the Singapore Showcase art fair in 2008, they decided to set up base here. They talk about gallery selection for the fair and the need for a healthy, wider art ecosystem where artists, critics, curators, galleries, collectors and audiences work together in collective energy.
SPELL#7, 2008
Spell#7 and sound artist Evan Tan made Sky Duet, an audio guide to be experienced in a Singapore Flyer capsule. Spell#7 have devised performances and new media artworks that immerse people in sensory derives in local neighborhoods, including an audio tour of Little India and the NEL. Here, they return to fundamental and mundane aspects of everyday life to bring out another side of touristic experience with storytelling and a soundscape. Thanks Paul, Kaylene & Evan.
REALLY ARCHITECTURE, 2009
Re:act are a collective of young architects who organize community design workshops for schoolchildren and youths, Asian architect conferences and thematic forums to reimagine a more human, historical and sustainable urban landscape in Singapore. They take us through their local bottom-up efforts and share their grand ambitions. Thanks Sernhong, Joshua & Wally.
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