An experiment on non-conventional printed narratives and storytelling. Adopting traits of ergodic literature, it is a fictional graphic novel/cookbook whose narratives are unravelled through recipes, journals, emails and game(s). As an ergodic, experimental text, it requires the reader to explore the various visuals, texts and formats to fully discover the narrative.
The story follows an unidentified creature seeking to impress a cashier by writing a cookbook, of which the book details its journey in writing the cookbook.
Mai Kiasu Lah!! is a semi-fictional graphic novel told through the perspective of the author, an adult who is reflecting on her experiences with Singapore’s kiasu education culture and performance-centric society. The author characterises her fear of losing out as an imaginary monster. Through a series of short stories, the author explores her relationship with this kiasu mentality and academic validation growing up in Singapore’s education system. This collection of stories hopes to challenge the performance-centred nature of Singaporean society, and question the effectiveness of a meritocratic education system on nurturing young creatives in Singapore. This project therefore aims to shed some light on this issue and not to solve it entirely, but to provide a sense of solace to those who feel the same way.
Mother Knows…Best? is a semi-fictional and semi-autobiographical illustrated publication based on a series of conversations with my family and close friends. The publication explores stories of emotional inheritance in Singapore from a Generation-Z perspective and serves as a means of self-reflection of my own experience.
Emotional inheritance is the transmission of emotions from generation to generation. In studying the intergenerational transmission of trauma, also known as generational trauma, where the effects of a traumatic incident get passed down from those who directly experienced the incident to subsequent generations, we investigate how our ancestors’ unprocessed emotions, especially trauma, are passed down as an emotional inheritance, leaving a trace in our minds and in those of future generations.
Through storytelling, the publication will allow greater awareness and understanding of this phenomenon, and educate the various nuanced and layered ways in which emotional inheritance manifests in family units and their dynamics. This will encourage readers to make sense of their own experience, as well as provide them with a culturally appropriate, pragmatic and accessible means for retrospection.
Mother Knows…Best? is a semi-fictional and semi-autobiographical illustrated publication based on a series of conversations with my family and close friends. The publication explores stories of emotional inheritance in Singapore from a Generation-Z perspective and serves as a means of self-reflection of my own experience.
Emotional inheritance is the transmission of emotions from generation to generation. In studying the intergenerational transmission of trauma, also known as generational trauma, where the effects of a traumatic incident get passed down from those who directly experienced the incident to subsequent generations, we investigate how our ancestors’ unprocessed emotions, especially trauma, are passed down as an emotional inheritance, leaving a trace in our minds and in those of future generations.
Through storytelling, the publication will allow greater awareness and understanding of this phenomenon, and educate the various nuanced and layered ways in which emotional inheritance manifests in family units and their dynamics. This will encourage readers to make sense of their own experience, as well as provide them with a culturally appropriate, pragmatic and accessible means for retrospection.
Cog in the Machine is an experimental graphic novel that takes a posthuman approach to narrativity and design. The project seeks to use themes of technology to not only provide answers about our place in the universe as humans, but also to raise questions that contribute to the ongoing posthuman dialogue. The graphic novel features narrative and visuals produced in collaboration with open-source artificial intelligence models such as Generative Pre-trained Transformer Vr. 2 (GPT-2) by OpenAI and Attentional Generative Adversarial Network (AttnGAN) by Microsoft Deep Learning Technology Centre.
The narrative is inspired by recent developments in biotechnology in Singapore such as culturing meat with stem cells, genome editing on animals and the implications of such changes. Visual communication will play a critical role in making these unseen subjects tangible to the general public, enabling them to comprehend subjects that are beyond their visual scope — and, in turn, encourage bridging the worlds of visual arts and technology.
