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.
Religion has always been one of the topics that could bring people together, or push people apart. In the case of sex education, Muslim youths who live in both the religious and secular societies, while still developing their identities, face a unique struggle. Through face to face interviews, online questionnaires, and secondary research, it is found that many young Muslims who live in diverse societies, surrounded by external influences, are fed unrealistic messages of love, lust, and relationships, as they struggle to meet the expectations of both worlds. In this report, it goes through the creative process of creating a graphic novel series that touches on sensitive topics that are age appropriate for the pre-teen target audience. “Sofia’s” is a series of short graphic novel stories created for pre-teens, aged 9 to 12, that revolve around stories of seemingly normal everyday happenings that test their beliefs in Islamic values, inspired by Muslims from around the world who also live in diverse societies.
Tradigital Mythmaking: Baia is a comic project that seeks to tell the story of a negotiation between
tradition and change. The story features Baia, the main character and a youth of the Crocodile Tribe that
dwells deep underwater, who encounters Lita, a human girl who saves his life.
‘Baia’ seeks to be primarily an entertainment and exploratory piece that can act as a spark of interest in
investigating traditional motifs with contemporary comic styles and sequential storytelling formats. These
visual motifs are derived from research on the traditional woven crafts of the Iban people of Borneo. The
project’s visual development studies the reptilian motifs in the Iban woven crafts and seeks to investigate
potential graphic novel design process deviations and the effects of traditional meanings imposed on a
contemporary comic style.
The outcome of the project is a fully coloured 34-page graphic novel and a visual development
booklet.
I’m More Of A Dog Person and Other Tales of Horror is a graphic novel that tells three short narratives set in a common Singaporean urban space – a single floor of an HDB block. It follows a mode of telling a multiplicity of stories located within urban spaces by exploring what goes on behind different doors. What do these people desire, and how do they negotiate these desires with what others demand of them? These struggles range across different generations and are translated into graphic tales which have grotesque or fantastical elements.
