Dual Blur | Hiroaki Umeda, co-produced by CultureLink Singapore | Gallery 10, Level 1

In this interactive visual installation, the “noise” on the screen moves like a waterfall, river or snowstorm – a constantly moving piece of digital nature. On detecting movement, part of the noise changes its speed, revealing the image behind it. Discover reality and rich information hidden in the ever-changing nature on screen, revealed only with participation from the audience.

This artwork incorporates drawings from the National Museum’s prized William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings.

About the Artist

Hiroaki Umeda (b.1977) is a choreographer, dancer and visual artist whose choreographic works have been staged around the world since 2002, including at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, with performances in over 150 cities in 40 countries. His works also encompass sound, video and lighting design, and have been performed not only in the field of dance, but also in technology and electronic music platforms around the world such as MUTEK Montreal.

In recent years, he has also created visual installations focusing on physical sensation. In 2018, his video installation was presented at the 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT's Audio Architecture exhibition. His Intensional Particle installation has also been presented in festivals around the world, and received awards at the FullDome Festival in Germany and Macon Film Festival in the USA.

#FaceOfTheDaySG | Yang Derong | Exhibition Gallery 1, Basement Level

Sharing wry, witty and wondrous moments of everyday life in Singapore, Face Of The Day combines photography, videography, fashion, arts, culture and social phenomena to create arresting images that tell a story as a digital visual dialogue over 369 days.

Try this experience!
You can experience the digital extensions for some of the images in this brochure. To do this, download the ‘Artivive’ app on your smartphone or tablet from the Apple store or Google Play store. When you point at the marked images, they will be brought to life.

#FaceOfTheDaySG

About the Artist

Yang Derong (b.1965) spent seven years in Paris as Directeur de Style with fashion designer Jean Charles de Castelbajac, and as Global Image Director of Esprit International from 1994 to 2006. He has since returned to Singapore, where he has been involved in many high profile international and government projects, including being the National Day Parade art director and costume designer for Singapore’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.

In addition to a career in fashion design, image and branding, as well as creative direction, Yang has designed costumes for Singapore theatre – including Beauty World, Hotpants and Forbidden City – Portrait of an Empress, which won him an M1–The Straits Times Life! Theatre Award in 2003. He reprised this role in the 2017 run of Forbidden City.

Co(AI)xistence | Justine Emard | Exhibition Gallery 1, Basement Level

This artwork explores the interaction between dancer Mirai Moriyama and the robot Alter, animated by an artificial life system programmed by Tokyo University’s Ikegami Lab. Created by Osaka University’s Ishiguro Lab, the robot’s minimal humanoid form allows for an emotional projection. Endowed with different forms of intelligence, man and robot begin a dialogue through their respective languages, both physical and verbal. Through a deep learning system, Alter learns from his encounter with Moriyama while both try to define new perspectives of coexistence.

About the Artist

Through various mediums such as photography, video, installations and augmented reality, Justine Emard (b.1987) questions the image in its materiality. Her works explore the paradigms of the cinematographic image – the screen, the frame and the off-screen. 

On a creative trip to Dallas, USA in 2008, she investigated the disappearance of drive-in theatres. This decisive moment in her practice led her to search for and photograph rectangles of white paint posed by anonymous people on the walls of the city, like potential screens. This concept of reflection is pursued in particular in Emard’s photographic series based on the concept of reframing the landscape through the openings of abandoned buildings. Her interest in abandoned ruins, spaces and architectures is coupled with an attempt to inject new life into them and to reimagine the way in which they are perceived.

2017 Hors les murs residency programem by Institut Français, Paris 

2017 Grant “Brouillon d’un rêve, Pierre Schaeffer”, SCAM, Paris 

2018 Prize HUMAN FUTURE of the BAINS NUMERIQUES#10 - International Biennale of digital arts, Enghien-les-Bains, France

Sonic Womb | Randy Chan | Exhibition Gallery 1, Basement Level

This interactive, immersive installation comprises a suspended tensile “womb” structure and soundscape, which explores the process of human gestation. As visitors explore the installation, a series of sensors tracks the real-time movement of those outside the womb, translating these into an intimately-textured soundscape that mimics the way a foetus would experience sound.

The “womb” itself is a soft, semi-translucent fabric pod that responds to the movements of its temporary habitants. The outer membrane acts as a “soft box” diffuser of light, where projections on the external skin illuminate the inner space and reveal those within as indistinct shapes. The human explorer within experiences the architectural environment through a vague perception of scale and direction, resulting in the simultaneous feeling of isolation and weightlessness.

About the Artist

Randy Chan (b.1979) is one of Singapore’s leading young artists/architects specialising in the convergence between art and architecture. His architectural and design experience crosses multiple fields and scales, guided by the simple philosophy that architecture and aesthetics are part of the same impulse.

Chan is the creative director of Singapore: Inside Out, an international platform featuring a collection of multi-disciplinary experiences created by practicing artists from Beijing, London, New York and Singapore. Artistically, it combines the varying disciplines of architecture, design, fashion, film, food, music, performance and the visual arts.

Collaborators

Ong Kian Peng | Interactive / Kinetic Artist
Benjamin Cheng | Sound Designer
Shar Tahir | Technical Sound Director

Sabot de Venus | Baelf Design | Exhibition Level 1, Basement Level

Beeing Human is a series of 3D-printed garments that pays tribute to the wonders of nature. The details of Beeing Human are inspired by the honeycomb; a strong systematic construct that is unique to bees. To the artists, the function of the honeycomb is similar to how humans create objects used to contain and protect. A fusion of geometric, architectural and organic forms overlaying the human body brings to light the relationship between humans and nature.

Exclusively for DigiMuse Presents, the artists took inspiration from Singapore’s heritage and history with their re-interpretations of garments and accessories on display in the Modern Colony gallery. Traditional dresses and Peranakan accessories from the National Collection are re-interpreted and created with digital 3D-printing technology, offering a glimpse into how Singapore's fashion might look like in the future.

About Baëlf Design

In May 2016, fashion artist Jamela Law co-founded Baëlf with product designer Lionel Wong, specialising in biomimicry-inspired wearable art created using novel manufacturing technologies. Their work has been showcased at the New York Fashion Tech Week, Art of Fashion in San Francisco, as well as the Affordable Art Fair and A Modern Play in Singapore. Baëlf Design emerged as the second runner-up in the 20th Fashion Futures conference held in Shanghai in April 2018.

Pulse | Galina Mihaleva, Hedren Sum, Pat Pataranutaporn, Kathrin Albers and Audrey Ng | Front Lawn, near Banyan Tree

Pulse creates a playful, tactile playground for audiences to experience the digital interpretations of our urban landscape today.

Interact with colourful visualisation projections through sound and voice in this immersive experience, and explore the installation's reflections on the influence of digital technology and media in the present day.

This artwork was originally created for the Singapore Night Festival 2018, commissioned by the National Heritage Board and is supported by the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University.

About the Artists

Galina Mihaleva is an Assistant Professor at the Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design & Media where she teaches Technology, Art and Fashion. Her interest in fashion lies in exploring the extent to which we experience fashion (emotional, intellectual and sensual aspects) and how we might be able to accomplish a higher state of connectivity between the body and our clothing.

Hedren Sum is a Digital Humanities Project Manager at the Institute of Science and Technology for Humanity, Nanyang Technological University. He has developed and led various local and international digital humanities projects with particular expertise in interface design, data organisation, archiving and data visualisation for access and discovery.

Pat Pataranutaporn is a creative biologist, designer, coder and a graduate student at MIT Media Lab. He is enthusiastic about prototyping impossible things and his works examine the symbiotic relationships between human and technology beyond traditional contexts, ranging from using AI to cope with mental health issues on social media to designing how humans interact with DNA computers.

Kathrin Albers is a stop-motion animator who works in Hamburg/Germany. Under the studio Stoptrick, she has created many short films, trailers and music videos while working successfully on various German and international productions, and has received many awards in animation festivals worldwide.

Talking Cheongsams | Galina Mihaleva and Hedren Sum | Rotunda, Level 1

Talking Cheongsams uses the iconic Chinese cheongsam as a form of storytelling to trace the identity and rapidly-changing social landscape of Singapore. Through the course of making and exhibiting Talking Cheongsams, this interactive textile installation forms, stores and retrieves memories about Singapore’s heritage and identity.

Twelve cheongsams from the National Collection were carefully selected and used as inspiration for artistic interpretation in this work. The artist aims to evoke and commemorate the cheongsam as a form of dress portraying dual characteristics of fragility and strength; modernity and self-awareness. Technology seamlessly embedded within the works allow the textiles to talk or light up to interact with audiences.

In addition to the twelve hanging cheongsams, this work also includes a projection work displayed on the cheongsam-wearing mannequin; a cheongsam painted with thermochromic ink over silk, and a video installation demonstrating the process of the dissolving medium of these cheongsams to reveal the remaining textures exhibited.

About the Artists

Galina Mihaleva is an Assistant Professor at the Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design & Media where she teaches Technology, Art and Fashion. Prior to joining NTU, Galina taught at Arizona State University for more than 15 years. Her interest in fashion lies in exploring the extent to which we experience fashion (emotional, intellectual and sensual aspects) and how we might be able to accomplish a higher state of connectivity between the body and our clothing.

Hedren Sum is a Digital Humanities Project Manager at the Institute of Science and Technology for Humanity, Nanyang Technological University. He has developed and led various local and international digital humanities projects with particular expertise in interface design, data organisation, archiving and data visualisation for access and discovery. Hedren deals with different types of data and applies a wide array of data analysis and visualisation methods to develop research data products. He is constantly curious and exploring new ways to analyse, transmit, disseminate, and interpret data.

PlayTech+ by The Little Arts Academy | Various Installations

PlayTech+ is a playzone created by a group of teens using technology, with the plus sign symbolising augmented state of play. The teens have transformed some of their favourite childhood memories into various play objects and the results are quirky and imaginative! Watch playful Koi fishes and colourful flowers come alive or open a musical box to discover hidden secrets. See what happens when you press Play!

Presented by HSBC, PlayTech+ features the work of young budding artists from The Little Arts Academy, an arts training centre that provides a creative learning environment for young people to discover their artistic potential, develop confidence and interpersonal skills. The Little Arts Academy seeks to provide equal opportunities for all to pursue the arts and is supported by The Business Times Budding Artists Fund.