Satellite Installations
Satellite Installations
Check out our Curiocity installations in the Civic District during the Light to Night Festival 2022. Explore our history through new, creative works by our local artists.
The River Connects
14 January – 3 February 2022
Level 2 Foyer, Asian Civilisations Museum
About the installation
An immersive media installation by artist Ong Kian Peng, The River Connects highlights the bridges along the Singapore River. As its title suggests, this work explores the possibilities of human connection on and by the river — an organic phenomenon that can span mobility, commerce and social interactions. Inspired by this notion, The River Connects references the many ways of connecting through a collection of archival and 3D scanned images of the bridges. It presents the stories they hold in an interactive and experiential format, while giving the audience new perspectives of sights both familiar and yet distant.
About the artist
Ong Kian Peng is a media artist based in Singapore. Working at the intersection of art, technology and the environment, Ong creates immersive and reflective environments that offer alternate visions and imaginations of our relationship with nature. His works have been exhibited in spaces such as the Tainan Museum of Fine Art, Singapore Art Museum and Total Museum Seoul, as well as festivals like Siggraph Art Gallery and FILE Festival Brazil. Ong graduated from UCLA with an MFA in Design Media Art. He currently runs Supernormal.space, an independent art space focusing on emerging and experimental art practice.
Behind the work
Thekey inspiration behind The River Connects is the notion that we now live in such a hyperconnected world – digitally and physically – that we don’t even wonder or know what it is like to be disconnected. In the context of the Singapore River, it is unimaginable how inconvenient life must have been before bridges were built across it. These bridges are transitional spaces that often pale in comparison to the grandeur of colonial buildings and bustle of F&B establishments that line either side of the river’s banks.
The challenge of this work was to shift the focus and attention of visitors to these bridges. I wanted to address this from a formal and conceptual perspective, bringing across the message of connection. With that as a starting point, I began to make connections between keywords such as “renew” and “digitisation”. That led me to explore point clouds, a spatial visualisation technique that recreates volumetric space with points. Point clouds are exciting as they are both abstract and familiar when viewing them from varying distances and perspectives. A Lidar scanner – a piece of optical survey equipment that maps out spaces by emitting pulses of laser light – was used to survey the featured bridges, and recorded data points to represent the bridges in a new visual format. Similarly, the data point visual language was applied to the representation of the river and the connection between people.
Find out more
To learn more about bridges along the Singapore River, check out this resource guide.
A Tessellation of Memories
14 January – 3 February 2022
Play Den, The Arts House
About the installation
A Tessellation of Memories is a reflective journey into our city’s past, piecing together forgotten places from our history. Immerse yourself in an imaginative realm and revisit six locales lost to time and the inevitability of progression, before emerging in the present. In this installation conceptualised by creative technology company Tribal Worldwide, time will stand still as you take an intimate look into each place framed within an artful stream of infinity mirrors. Each space is a reflection of its former self, glorious or otherwise, and invites its viewers to unearth a perspective unseen — until now.
About the collective
Tribal Worldwide – The Total Experience Agency brings together five core consulting practices to help businesses grow in the digital and experience economy. Total Experience (TX) is spearheaded by best-in-class practitioners and partners across the network in Europe and Asia. It comprises Business Consulting, Data Science, Customer Experience, Technology Engineering, Creative & Social. Tribal offers an innovation programme in Equator, where it partners with leading universities across Asia to work with clients. The agency also partners Credera, the Omnicom consulting company, for business transformation.
Behind the work
In bringing these places to life, we pored over scores of old maps, photographs, articles and books. George D. Coleman’s Map of the Town and Environs of Singapore formed the foundation of our research; Yu-Mei Balasingamchow’s observations documented in Rambling Around Bras Basah article offered personal insights; and lastly, the portraitures by visitors from far and wide compiled in the Travellers’ Tales of Old Singapore provided new and untold untold perspectives. These resources were invaluable in unveiling new facets to a district so familiar to us — an outcome we hope to achieve for all our visitors.
Find out more
Curious about the history of notable landmarks in the Civic District? Explore this resource guide to learn more.
LUMBA
14 January – 3 February 2022
Queen Elizabeth Walk, Esplanade Park
About the installation
LUMBA is an interactive light installation inspired by the small sailing boats in kolek lumba — a sea sport once held during the New Year Regatta in the Civic District between the 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring five standing sculptures modelled after the boats, this creation by interaction designer Alina Ling invites all to observe how the sails billow in sync with the wind. When night falls, viewers can walk through the spaces between the structures and see how their movements affect the dancing of light along their frames to evoke a celebratory mood.
About the artist
Alina Ling is an interaction designer who creates experiences and interfaces that explore new dimensions of sensory perception. A graduate of the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University, Ling pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interaction Design. Incorporating technology with different modalities (visual, sound, tactile and haptic), her works manipulate the physical and the intangible to provide a deeper understanding of the constructs of space and perceptual experience.
Behind the work
This work is based on archival photographs of the New Year Regatta. Recreating the scene on the Esplanade’s sea wall, this site-specific work pays homage to the historic event that once marked the beginning of the new year in Singapore.
The crew of racing koleks (small boat with a sail) were trained to manoeuvre the vessels under all weather conditions . They would stand on the gunwale at a perpendicular angle to the boat and expertly control its large sails to catch the wind. They would also use their whole bodies to balance the sails as the winds changed, while guiding the boat towards the finishing point.
The structures in LUMBA capture the form of tilted sails at varying angles, all headed towards a common direction. Their shapes reference the different profiles of sails balancing on shell-like bases — as seen on the koleks.
Vibrant colours illuminate each structure, as the lights undulate on the fabric in the dark. The motion of light was designed to mimic the impact of wind upon the sails and the kolek’s smooth gliding through water. As visitors walk around the structures, the colourful lights dynamically move to express the intensity of the sport and excitement of the spectators. As the sequence draws to a close, the lights dance to evoke the celebratory spirit of the New Year.
Find out more
Check out this resource guide to learn more about sports and recreation in the Civic District.
Showcase Map
Ready to explore this year’s Curiocity showcase? Start your journey using the showcase map below.
Keen for more? Discover the Civic District using this story map and learn about the historic buildings in the area.
