The Hall of Mirrors is an installation that resembles an echo-chamber. Exploring the relationship between infrastructure and information flow, The Hall of Mirrors explores how conveyed information is often devoid of meaning and personal relevance. Situated in the gap between information and meaning, The Hall of Mirrors constantly changes and highlights the inexorable nature of time and the unpredictability of the environment.

The installation uses publicly available and socially relevant statistics. The occurrence and reoccurrence of these statistics, measured in seconds and in minutes, are synchronised to clocks that constantly alert the viewers of their frequency and reality. The installation aggregates this information and ‘humanises’ these statistics by letting viewers experience them on a personal and individual level. Offering ample opportunity for reflection and self-examination, the work also asks the audience to consider the implications of the ways in which information is packaged and presented.

Click here listen to the audio accompaniment to an experimental essay written for the catalogue of The Hall of Mirrors.

Bio

Bruce Quek is an emerging artist who works with mixed media and found objects. He studied sculpture at LASALLE College of the Arts, and started off with a material-driven approach to sculpture – sculpture not as representation or symbol, but as the experience of the play of physical properties. Quek’s projects take the distribution and dissemination of information as starting points for various conceptual investigations, critiques of artistic infrastructure, and other wanderings. He takes an interest in many things, and is currently fascinated with emergent behaviour, Zen and other schools of thought.

Images by Dan Yeo from White Room Studio.

Within 140 Characters is an interactive sonic composition which aims to explore the social media phenomenon of Twitter, and its ability to not just entertain, but also give voice and power to those who participate in it. Constrictive, or perhaps liberating, with a unique space of 140 characters, Twitter becomes a personal broadcast station for a sundry of proclamations, from succinct to banal. This sound installation aims to investigate this by grabbing live data from Twitter to create an immediate soundscape.

The audience enters arbitrary keywords to be searched on Twitter by a preset programme. The real-time frequency of the input of these keywords would then trigger sounds to create an unpredicted environment. The artist would also perform with these tweet-generated sounds by altering their sound patterns.

As all searches are restricted within Singapore, Within 140 Characters is a sonic suggestion of the city’s virtual landscape. It behaves as a framework for people to experience the most prevalent and urgent of concerns through forms of flashing keywords and ever-changing sounds.

Bio

Bin (Kian-Peng Ong) is a new-media artist who works at the intersection of art, design and technology. His works as an artist revolves around interpreting the environment and translating it in a way that highlights issues to the audience. Bin is especially interested in our inability to perceive environmental problems and often, his works serves to alter our perception towards it.

Bin graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts with a BA in interactive Arts and currently he is a first year graduate student in UCLAʼs Design | Media Arts programme. Binʼs most recent achievements includes a commissioned audiovisual performance in the recent Singapore M1 Fringe Festival under the collective PMP, in which he was the artistic director and co-founder. He was also the first Singaporean to receive a juryʼs recommendation award in the Japan Media Arts Festival 2009.

Images provided by The Substation.

Performed by: Sherry Tay, Ho Wen Yang, Natalie Wong, Christina Chan, Bernice Lee, Jereh Leong and Nicholas Lin.

Set in a game world where performers are avatars with special abilities, where sound is generated by motion-sensor technology, and where the audience directs part of the production, Loop Theory is a genre-bending, experimental dance performance. Exploring the notion of feedback (through sound, dance and interaction), Loop Theory uses technology as a platform for experimentation.

Tim Zeelie, the Marketing Manager of The Substation caught up with the Visual Art Open Call 2011 recipient, Bruce Quek and spoke to him about his project and about his interests in art.

TZ: How has your focus and interest in art and art making developed over the last seven years, and what mediums and concepts do you find most interesting?

BQ: I’d say that I started out with a material-driven approach to sculpture – in other words, sculpture not as a representation or symbol, but as the experience of the play of physical properties. For instance, one of my earlier works involved the suspension of a few, fine strands of fishing line from a ceiling, at heights roughly corresponding to the distribution of human height. It isn’t meant to mean anything; it’s just a sort of perceptual event. What I do now may seem a little distant from that point of view, but I think that starting point continues to have an influence on my work.

Following this, I began to take a greater interest in conceptual investigations, as applied to the context of an artwork on a number of levels, especially that of the distribution of information. At this point, my connection to any particular medium basically evaporated, and the methods and techniques I adopted were derived from the ideas I wished to explore. It tends towards a sort of analytical dryness, but it’s largely rooted in an interest in Zen and other schools of thought.

Of late, I’ve been interested in more excessive subjects – you could take the proposed project as an early example, insofar as it actually has content of a sort. I’m not able to nail it down to any particular medium or concept – strange emergences and sudden shifts in perspective, maybe. I realise that this is incredibly vague, but I guess I’m referring to events like the emergence of the Redemption movement in America, which has taken the tax code and other legal structures to produce a sort of bizzare folk religion. A more familiar example might be the arms race between spammers and CAPTCHA developers, which has apparently resulted in CAPTCHAs so indecipherable that segments of the human population are beginning to be shut out. These examples don’t seem immediately pertinent to art, but I think they reveal general patterns that could be applied elsewhere.

TZ: You seem to be quite interested in exploring the nature and interrelation of art, display and context. What about these topics you find interesting, and how you have you dealt with these themes previously?

BQ: If you think about these contextual and infrastructural elements as staging and ambiance, the question that might well be asked is, what isn’t interesting about them? Taken together, they form a considerable part of the overall experience of encountering an artwork – as a stable ground, if maintained within the prescribed limits. Finding out what happens when you tweak the settings was a significant part of some of my earlier works.

For instance, Incidental Traces consisted of everything that goes into an exhibition, apart from actual artworks. It wasn’t so much about placing the pedestal on a pedestal and leaving it at that, but tinkering with the process of contextualisation itself, while alluding to information flow and encryption.

I took a different tack in Untitled (2006 – 2009), in which the artworks were excised from the conventional infrastructure of distribution and display, and subsequently grafted onto a separate system of distribution – furtively slipping them in between the pages of random library books. As far as the infrastructure was concerned, this offered a certain amount of populist appeal, in being so widespread. At the same time, it offered the possibility of a chance encounter with the work. In the end, the work was terminated by re-injecting it into a conventional display, with proper attribution, since the individual elements were anonymous. They’re still out there, of course, and I don’t doubt that there are plenty of people unaware of the termination who might continue to encounter it, rather like the isolated Japanese holdouts after the end of the second World War.

TZ: What is your proposed Open Call project about, and how does it develop and expand on the themes and concepts you’ve worked on in the past?

BQ: Strictly speaking, I wouldn’t say it’s about anything. It contains and conveys information, but I would be hard-pressed to say that it expresses something in particular. I suppose another way of looking at it is that the fact that such a quantity of information does not convey meaning is what the work is about. That there are gaps between information, meaning, information-formation and meaning-formation that are too-often papered over.

In terms of themes and concepts explored, I would say that this project is something of a departure from my previous works – it has content, of a sort. True, it draws on things I’ve previously explored, such as the examination of infrastructural elements and information flow. However, the overall presentation takes a far more performative approach, and I’ve not dealt with anything specifically social in the past.

TZ: What relevance do you feel this project has, in terms of the kind of art that we’re seeing emerge in Singapore at the moment?

BQ: I believe that this project is most relevant in encouraging an expansion of artistic presentation, beyond simple show-cases or displays, with their attendant, papered-over assumptions. At the same time, the information presented has relevance to a wide variety of social issues, so the work itself may serve as a useful tool in helping artists and activists evaluate their responses to these issues. On a more general level, I hope that this project will engender interest in the implications of how information is packaged and presented, within the context of a discussion or debate.

Joyce Teo, the Project Assistant of Open Call 2011 programmes caught up with the Sound Art Open Call 2011 recipient, Bin and asked him about his interests in the sound art genre, social media and his upcoming installation Within 140 Characters.

JT: As the first recipient of the newly initiated Sound Art Open Call, can you elaborate on your interpretation of sound art? What do you think of the current reception of such new media art in Singapore?

B: I think sound art can be mainly categorized into two groups. One of it looks at the aesthetics of sound and new ways of making sound. The other looks at using sound conceptually, to highlight certain issues, spaces and our perceptions. Both are equally interesting and I would love to explore in both directions.

I wouldn’t say sound art = new media art because sound art started before words came into existence. But indeed, a lot of artists are exploring new ways in which technology is somehow involved in the process of creating sound, so in that sense yes, sound art is closely associated with new media art. Within 140 Characters is such an example, since technology and sound are both equally integral. Currently, such works in my opinion are still at the beginning of the process of being widely accepted by the art audience. Generally I think a lot of people have problems associating technology with art.

New media has always been something fascinating for me because of its possibilities, particularly in the ways it can engage with the audience. Sure, there is a steep learning curve but that is also one part of the fun. Being able to program (as in knowing a programming language) also allows me to do things as I wish, without being restricted by softwares that others have made. As a common man on the street, it is also very interesting to see how new media devices and technologies are fast integrating into our lives and becoming ‘not so new’.

JT: Tell us a bit more about your personal encounter with new media, as artist, as well as a member of society. What are your artistic interests, and how you have come to use what you use, to say what you want to say?

B: The point of departure for my works have always been based on my experience or observations as an individual and it is never about technology over content. As with other artists, my works always starts off with something that I wish to explore and I have never really limited myself to one specific field. The scope of my interests is wide, as far as the medium or the format of the work is concerned. So far I’ve worked with objects/devices, sound, generative paintings, audiovisual and data visualization.

Artistically, my interests have always revolved around the different environment that humans live in, be it physical or virtual. There is also a field work element involved in the process of creating my works that I enjoy. This can be collecting images, sound, data or just getting to know a place well. I would say that being there and being part of it is an important part of my work.

I was really interested in climate change during my final year in LASALLE and I wanted to explore how our perceptions towards these future disasters (but surely, if nothing is done) can be changed, to somehow relate them to the immediate present. This resulted in a wearable piece titled The Flood Helmet (2009), which feeds from GPS coordinates and data predicted by the climate change panel. The helmet floods whenever the user walks into an area predicted to be affected in the future. This creates an immersive experience of seeing the landscape being altered in real time and connecting it to their immediate environment.

Flood Helmet triggered my interest in shifting perceptions and that led to my next project, Bright Noise (2009) where I tried to address the problematic visual means of representing light pollution by sonifying images of the city’s lightscape. The result was a series of sonic soundscapes representing the situation of light pollution in different parts of the city.

JT: Please introduce us to your proposed project, what is it about, what it aims to say and hopes to do? How different is it from your past works?

B: Within 140 Characters is a sonic composition in response to an emerging trend of social networks being used in Singapore as an open mic/forum where anyone can voice their opinions on topics ranging from politics to their everyday lives. Particularly, Twitter feeds are being used in this case for its openness and also because it is interesting to see how it behaves like a broadcasting station with a confine of 140 characters.

This work is not really about saying anything on its own, rather it aims to explore and investigate the virtual, social and psychological landscape of Singapore through sound patterns; frequencies triggered and altered in real time by twitter searches. The audience in this case, is a collaborator who can help to define the keywords to search for in this performance.

In many ways, this piece is about creating a framework because we don’t really know how many tweets are going to be posted or what topics would be popular. This is the first time that I am using such a generative approach in making sound and also, the involvement of the audience in art-making is a first for me.

JT: On top of new media as a medium, there seems to be a growing trend in artists using data and information as trigger or determinant for their art forms. Do you see this as an almost desperate attempt to be socially engaged? Especially in the context of Singapore where the artist still struggles for his/her role to be perceived as relevant.

B: I don’t think it is a desperate attempt to be socially engaged but of course, it all depends on the way it is being used. But I do think that it is particularly relevant in today’s context because of our heavy consumption of mobile gadgets and the Internet. Every time we use a service online, we leave traces, a digital artefact. Today, many of us are heavily dependent on the GPS function to use multiple apps including navigational tracking, fitness apps, social apps and etc. So I think it is a parallel progression between the ways we deal with data and how artists use this data in their work. We are bombarded with too much information sometimes and it is hard to make meaning out of it. That is why artists who make use of data are particularly relevant, rather than trying to be relevant.

Performed by: Melissa Quek, Elizabeth De Roza, Oon Shu An and Brian O’Reilly

A dark Theatre. Rustling sounds set the nerves on edge. In the blackness shapes are barely visible, but it feels like paper is everywhere. Somewhere a chalk outline.

Is that Regina? Why is she dead?
That’s up to you to decide in this interactive performance that defies categorisation. Part Installation part performance, the more you act, the more you’ll see.
Thumbprints, artifacts and bodies- images and symbols that point to one thing. You decipher the clues.

Bio

After graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Melissa performed with the Ad Deum Contemporary Dance Company in Houston, Texas. Dancing in Kuik Swee Boon’s Silence, she represented Singapore at the 8th Asian Arts Festival in Beijing and recently performed in the SIDance Festival in Seoul. Melissa has choreographed and produced a number of full length works including No Strings Attached, a 2009 M1 Fringe Festival Commission. Melissa is currently Programme Coordinator for LASALLE College of the Arts, School of Dance, and writes dance reviews for the Business times.

Images provided by The Substation.

\\: The Singapore River as a Psychogeographical Faultline, conceptualised and produced by 26-year-old Singaporean artist, Debbie Ding, will examine and reconsider the role of the Singapore River through a unique interactive and generative map installation.

As Singapore’s most significant river, the Singapore River is a site that contains many common memories and stories. Over the last hundred years, due to commercial and developmental reasons, the river has changed drastically in purpose, form, and colour, leaving us to struggle with its exact history and geography.

The exhibition includes a map installation, generated by algorithms, that will help the audience to understand and make sense of the significance of the river, increase awareness of local geography, as well as highlight the importance of maps as a tool for the production of meaning. In addition there will be 20 to 40 small hand drawn maps depicting various people’s perspectives of Singapore.

The audience will also be invited to take part in an interactive exercise during the exhibition, where they can mark a map of the Singapore River with both real and fictional landmarks, stories, and memories, creating, in turn, their own mythology for the river.

Bio

Debbie Ding is an artist, designer, and cartographer who likes mapping and visualising spaces – whether they be real, imaginary, or dream spaces. After graduating with a B.A (Hons) in English Literature from National University of Singapore in 2007, she pursued her interest in the visual arts and interactive media. Currently, she works independently as an interactive designer, and she likes investigating how people are influenced by their built environment, and how it affects human interaction with urban public spaces in cities such as Singapore and London.

\\ : The Singapore River as a Psychogeographical Faultline is her first solo show.

Images provided by Debbie.

Inspired by Critique of a Spectacular Life by Chien Swee-Teng, this project questions the use-value of books, the double meanings of the word ‘de-composition’, mass reproduction, and our diminishing notion of the sacred and the profane.

Containing a story of a book anthropomorphized as a woman, and how her existence is akin to a prostitute, the manually produced, A0-sized tome of hand-painted text is illustrated with drawings produced within 24-hours in a dodgy hotel room in Geylang. The full content, only accessible to the audience through scheduled staged-readings performed as a sacred ritual*, attempts to reiterate how aura is compromised or perverted in this pseudo-secular world governed and seduced by the Principles of Technocratic Convenience.

Bio

Vertical Submarine is an art collective from Singapore that consists of Fiona Koh, Justin Loke and Joshua Yang. The collective was formed in late 2003 to rethink the validity of the individual artist and to explore the possibility of producing works as an amorphous, asexual/polysexual being that thinks and acts as a melting pot. Their works include installations, drawings and paintings which involve text, storytelling and an acquired sense of humour. Their most recent accomplishment includes taking the Singapore Art Museum under siege for the Singapore Night Festival 2010 and displaying a fully functional guillotine and other instruments of torture in its courtyard. Collectively they have won several awards including the Credit Suisse Artist Residency Award 2009, The President’s Young Talents Award 2009 and the Singapore Art Show Judges’ Choice 2005.

Images provided by Vertical Submarine.

Videology: a word made up to suggest “the study of how video or moving images are made and understood”.

The project aims to challenge the working and research methods of five artists who take a process-based approach to artmaking. Maxine Chionh, Claes Erik Eriksson, Julie Lee, Patricia Ho and Veliana come from diverse artistic backgrounds in painting, printmaking and sculpture, Thereof the exhibition will show the artists’ intent to employ any form of the video medium in place of, or in conjunction with, their current methods and subject matters.

Bio

Urich Lau is a Singaporean visual artist practicing in video art, photography and printmaking. He has exhibited extensively and has also curated and organised projects on video art.

Images provided by Urich.

If a tree falls in the forest by The Institute of Critical Zoologists questions our views and relationships with animals. They are prey, pets, trinkets, trophies and pests. This exhibition makes subversive changes in the way we observe animals and illustrates how these changes can alter perceptions and interpretations and ultimately question the human to animal relationship. If a tree falls in the forest, an exhibition curated by the Institute, questions our conceptions and relationships with animals. As Mr Tomo Kawasaki, Director of The Institute of Critical Zoologists, has explained: “the ICZ promotes discussion about the principles and practices of animal spectatorship, animal advocacy, animal killing and animal-related policies across the fields of entertainment, social science, commerce, culture and ecology. We hope that viewers will look upon animals in a different light after seeing this exhibition.”

If a tree falls in the forest is made up of three parts: Before the flood is a live performance* that features hundreds of mousetraps springloaded with ping pong balls. Each ping pong ball represents one of the thousands of mouse species in the world. The performance is accompanied by a showcase of the Institute’s collection of animal traps from around the world. Also on show are animal memorabilia from around the globe in the ICZ museum collection.

Kings is a collection of rare white Tottori cockroaches, from the Tottori sand dunes of Japan; these creatures exemplify how animals are assigned a certain “status” based on their aesthetic appeal. The specimens are presented with projects by previous artists-in-residence who have been inspired by these curious creatures. They include Zhao Renhui’s artist-led expedition into the Tottori Desert and Sokkuan Tye’s Japanese print.

Soon Bo’s Cold Room and Shelves is a series of photographs of animals from the collection of taxidermist and biologist, the late Soon Bo. His love for animals and his skill as a taxidermist resulted in a bizarre collection of specimens, accumulated over many years. Zhao Renhui, member and a resident artist of the ICZ, spent a short time as Soon Bo’s student in taxidermy; for Zhao, “This collection blurs the lines between the natural and the artificial, as the animals stare back at you with questions in their glassy eyes, and an eerie hint of life in their bodies.”

Bio

The Institute of Critical Zoology mobilises artistic strategies under the methodological and liveried disguise of a scientific institute. The projects within the Institute employ documented observations, public interventions, and artist-led expeditions that materialize as installations in public, institutional, and conventional art-exhibition spaces, websites, and multi-media presentations/performances.

Devoted to the inter-disciplinary study of zoology, it is a performance (predominately through a website and through the artist performances) of an unlikely international collaboration between, Japan, China and Singapore, showcasing advances in zoological knowledge and technique – often, in a wistful pursuit for ecological salvation and a contemporary appreciation of the animal-being in our society.

Images provided by The Institute of Critical Zoology

Application Details
Closing Date: 30 March 2012

No late applications will be considered.

Criteria for selection

• It must not have been performed or presented in public in any form.
• The work can be Sound as their primary focus in their work. Using objects or materials to explore and create sound.
• It can be a presentation of Sound ecology; using spaces and architecture to explore sound.
• Site specific sound work exploring the vicinity of Substation
• Building of own electronic or analog sound instruments/ DIY/ circuit bend
• The presentation of work may or may not be interactive, it can be performative, installation or exhibition format.
•  Open to all Singaporean and Singapore Permanent Residents only.
• Submission can be from either individual or a collective of artists.

How to apply:

•  Applications should include:
•  An application form (Downloadable here)
• Brief description of the proposed project. Proposal should also outline objectives, scope of participation and benefits of proposed project.
• Images of past or present works (no more than 5 images, less than 100 MB in total) or portfolio or sample of works, including press cuttings or articles if any, by participating artists (e.g. DVD, portfolio, slides)
• CV of the key artists (not more than 2 pages)
• Bio of the key artists (not more than 2 pages)
• Budget of the proposed project (a breakdown of production cost)
• All files should be sent in a zip folder via email

We accept proposals by post or through email.

Applications will be considered and short-listed by The Substation.

Do note that the support materials will not be returned to artists

Applications should be sent to:

Sound Art Open Call
Annabelle Aw
The Substation
45 Armenian Street
Singapore 179936

thesubstationopencall@gmail.com

Closing Date: 30 March 2012
No late applications will be considered.

Criteria for selection

• It must not have been performed or presented in public in any form, and must not be longer than 60 minutes in duration.
• The works can be in any medium: dance, performances of plays, physical theatre movement, musical etc.
• Open to all Singaporean and Singapore Permanent Residents only.
• Submission can be from either individual or a collective of artists.

How to apply:

• Applications should include:
• An application form (Downloadable here)
• Brief description of the proposed project. Proposal should also outline objectives, scope of participation and benefits of proposed project.
• Images of past or present works (no more than 5 images, less than 100 MB in total) or portfolio or sample of works, including press cuttings or articles if any, by participating artists (e.g. DVD, portfolio, slides)
• CV of the key artists (not more than 2 pages)
• Bio of the key artists (not more than 2 pages)
• Submission of full‐length scripts is required
• Budget of the proposed project (a breakdown of production cost)
• All files should be sent in a zip folder via email

Selection Process

We accept proposals by post or through email.

Applications will be considered and short-listed by The Substation.

Do note that the support materials will not be returned to artists

Applications should be sent to:

Performance Open Call
Annabelle Aw
The Substation
45 Armenian Street
Singapore 179936

thesubstationopencall@gmail.com

Closing Date: 30 March 2012
Late applications will be not considered.

Criteria for selection

• It must be an exhibition of new work, which has not previously seen in public (local and overseas) in its proposed form or in its entirety.
• The works can be in any medium: painting, sculpture, installation, video art etc.
• Open to all Singaporean and Singapore Permanent Residents only.
• Submission can be from either individual or a collective of artists.

How to apply:

•  Applications should include:
•  An application form (Downloadable here)
•  Full description of the proposed project (not more than 1000 words)
•  Proposal should also outline objectives, scope of participation and benefits of proposed project
•  Sketches are welcomed
•  Images of past or present works (no more than 5 images, less than 100 MB in total) or portfolio or sample of works, including press cuttings or articles if any, by participating artists (e.g. DVD, portfolio, slides)
•  A CV and short bio (not more than 2 pages)
• Budget (a breakdown of production costs)
• Layout plan for the exhibition
• All files should be sent in a zip folder via email

Download The Substation Gallery plan.
Selection Process

Do note that the support materials will not be returned to artists.

We accept proposals by post or through email.

Applications will be considered and short-listed by The Substation.

The successful applicant will be informed by 19 April 2012.

Applications should be sent to:

Visual Art Open Call
Annabelle Aw
The Substation
45 Armenian Street
Singapore 179936

thesubstationopencall@gmail.com

ZUL has frequently worked in the context of the artist collective – being the co-founder of Studio 19 and Pink Ark. Pink Ark, formed with fellow artist Kai Lam, in 2004 to pursue ‘experimental sound art’, marked a milestone as the first sound collective in Singapore. It subsequently organized Singapore’s first 24-hour Sound Art Festival (Una Voce, 2005).

ZUL’s practice has been marked by diversity, with the artist exploring various media and platforms. Adopting a multi-disciplinary/multi-genre approach, that also include drawings, prints, sculptures and ready-mades, ZUL has exhibited in Singapore, Thailand, Germany, Japan, Vietnam, Italy, Moscow, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Norway and Finland. His “Stilt” series forms part of The Swissotel Stamford Singapore’s permanent art collection. His notable initiatives include an industrial-sound inspired soundtrack in conjunction with an Antoni Tapies exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum and winning Singapore Straits Time Life! Theatre Award 2010 for Best Sound Design (RPM by Kafai/Theatreworks).

This year, for the first time, we have invited a guest curator, Zarina Muhammad to work closely with the selected artist.

For more information about Visual Art Open Call submission.

We’re pleased to have Natalie Hennedige as the guest curator, to work closely with the selected artist/group.

For more information about Performance Open Call submission.

We have invited Zul Mahmod as the curator to work closely with the selected artist/group.

For more information about Sound Art Open Call submission.

Tim Zeelie, the Marketing Manager of The Substation caught up with the Performance Open Call 2011 recipients, Sherry and Wen Yang and spoke to them about their project, themselves and about their interests in art.

TZ: Tell us a bit more about your proposed project, what exactly is it about?

Sherry & Wen Yang: We’re going to be exploring the notion of feedback. From the concept itself and the open workshop/rehearsal process, to the eventual performance theme and structure, feedback will be our guide and inspiration.

We plan to use a motion tracking device from the Kinect system to generate and manipulate sounds based on the movement of the artist. It will be a long series of experiments, culminating in a performance, which itself, may turn out to be the largest and most interesting experiment of the project.

TZ:Sounds interesting, but what can audiences expect from the production?

Expect the unexpected! This will not be a conventional dance performance; the audience would be required to be perceptive, receptive and even participative. Audiences may be performing and watching at the same time! Since this is a process-oriented production, the audience will also be welcome to attend our rehearsals and give… feedback!

TZ:Wen Yang, how does this project relate to and develop on your personal interest in music and dance, and Sherry, how does this develop on and explore your interests in dance?

Wen Yang: My main specialisation is in dance accompaniment, for both choreographed and improvised dance, the musician always has a certain autonomy over the artistic outcome by injecting personal interpretations into the music, and thus affecting the dancer(s). This project reverses and challenges this normal process and forces me to ‘surrender’ fully to the dance. The incorporation of technology is also the first time I’m using my computer engineering knowledge with the arts in a special way – not along with the arts or as an enhancement to the experience, but technology in this project forms the platform where the artistic concepts and process will be developed from. It will be a challenging process and collaborating and experimenting with dancers and movement artists to generate a sensible system to map motions into sound, will be exciting and revelatory.

Sherry: This is a very unusual setting for me, my choreographic process usually starts with the music and then the dance is created with the music in mind. However, in this situation, I’ll not only be a choreographer, but a composer as well. I’ve always enjoyed watching dancers ‘sing’ with their bodies, and now that I can literally make that happen is truly fascinating. Another aspect of this project is that I’ll get to collaborate with varied groups of movers. It’ll be an interesting process to meld the different aesthetics and personalities together, and I’m thrilled to be given this opportunity to embark on this adventure.

TZ: What relevance do you feel this new proposed project has, and what contributions do you feel it can make to contemporary Singaporean art?

Sherry & Wen Yang: This project is based on the concept of feedback, a very innate and essential, but often unnoticed part of our lives. We hope that this project can heighten all our (audience included) awareness of the various kinds of feedback around us, that we are responding to, as well as the feedback that we are providing to others. Not just the common verbal feedback that most people associate with, but every single movement, event or even possibly a facial expression, a vibe that may have a causal effect on ourselves, others or the environment. With this heightened awareness, we can perhaps have a better understanding on how we behave, how we learn, and perhaps take greater responsibility for our actions.

Living in a fast-paced country where we are arguably becoming less in-tune with our inner-selves, not having time to reflect and ‘feel’ our environment and actions, we feel that social relevance, highlighting the often ignored but yet essential parts of our lives is important. The convergence to multidisciplinary arts in the contemporary scene also poses the challenge to incorporate different disciplines sensibly and not unnecessarily, not with any of the elements as an ornament or enhancement, but with all the disciplines intertwined in a way that the artistic outcome cannot be realised sensibly without one another. So the social relevance of the concept, embracing multidisciplinary practices, and the novel use of technology are the main contributions we feel that this project makes to the art currently seen in Singapore.