Remembering the Singapore Tech Expo

A speculative graphic language project uncovering the root influences of Y2K aesthetics, explaining how these influences shape the trends of visual language and its impact on society at large. Presented through counterfactual artifacts of a 2000s Singapore Tech Expo, this project focuses on exploring what Singapore’s tech identity & its products could have been like and how it could have influenced visual culture of the 2000s.

The Weeping Citizen: The Future of Ocean in 2050

‘The Weeping Citizen’ is a visual exploration of a speculative ocean future, where Singapore navigates efforts to reverse the catastrophic loss of 50% of all marine life on Earth due to climate change. It is motivated by the increasing urgency of the Ocean Sustainability crisis and our disconnectedness from the issue due to our lack of up-close interactions with marine life in our urban environment.

This project aims to encourage Gen-Zs to become more proactive about conservation efforts in response to the ongoing Climate and Ocean Sustainability crisis and encourage inquisitiveness to become better-informed citizens. It explores the use of speculative design, utilizing sci-fi prototyping and a participatory design component to present a future scenario that synthesizes existing technologies, research, and scientific journals to contextualize a response.

The project, which includes a hypothetical public web archive and experiential display, prompts the audience to reflect on their relationship with the Ocean Sustainability crisis and the impact of their actions on building a sustainable future. It aims to incite introspection and encourage the audience to consider the interconnectivity of our lives with the Ocean Sustainability crisis, the various aspects of life that would be affected, and the ways in which our actions can either help or hinder our attempts to build an ideal sustainable future. By doing so, it aims to reframe how we interact with the present, critique our existing behaviours and encourage active conversation about steps we can take from here.

United Council of Modern Frustrations

The United Council of Modern Frustrations has conceptualised 4 separate micro-utopias – each targeted at a particular frustration or dissatisfaction borne out of being in the modern world.

This project explores the manifestations of our utopian desires through our relationship with technology and aims to express the futility and limitations of turning to technology as a quick-fix to our dissatisfactions. In doing so, it aims to suggest an alternate reading of how we view these four themes of dissatisfaction with our lives. Through the construction of the four micro-utopias using the medium of illustration, this project hopes to unearth speculative realities to highlight the struggles of our present reality in these scenarios.