The fashion industry is expanding rapidly with goods produced at lower prices of lower quality. More styles, lower prices and more waste created. In an attempt to address and create awareness around this issue, “Dear Fashion,” confronts the seismic problem by revisiting relationships with our clothes. An elaborate photo-documentation and data visualisation of 1126 articles of clothings from 7 individuals takes the form of Fashion Obituaries accompanied by a registrar – which catalogues their aesthetics to frequency worn. With a message tagged to each clothing, it serves as a reminder on how we are falling victim to fashion consumerism today.
“Welcome to Build-A-Bae! A place where you can impose your preferences on someone at last, with no repercussions! Build the ideal girl in your life with us, we offer a full range from daughters to wives. Guaranteed 100% satisfaction, otherwise you can have your money back.”
Build-A-Bae is an installation with a pop-up store concept that is a satirical attempt to poke fun at the stereotypes our society has for females. As one goes on to build his/her “Bae”, they will discover the problems and paradoxes brought about by these female stereotypes, and finally coming to question the logic and relevance behind those imposing these female stereotypes onto the women in our society.
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Singapore is a melting pot of culture and influences. Being in a cosmopolitan city that derives its influence from around the world, Singaporean females in comparison to its neighbouring counterparts have been known to enjoy a relative amount of freedom with regards to their education, career choices, behaviour and appearance. However, hidden behind this modernised cityscape is the fact that we are still an Asian society, and that females are still expected to fulfil traditional expectations placed onto them. Contextualizing the project within Third Wave Feminism theories of advocating for individualism and diversity for females, this project aims to address the problems and paradoxes that arises from existing female stereotypes in our society, and also to question the logic and relevance behind these female stereotypes.
In today’s fast-paced world, time has become increasingly insufficient. But is this statement derived from truth or a construct? Before the invention of clocks and uniform time, time-keeping was based on the sun and bodily rhythms. However, with the progress of civilisations and the invention of clock time, a more uniform and systematic construct of time was created. This change disrupted the natural rhythms of the body and its relationship to the natural world, resulting in a shift of how time is perceived and used. Could there be alternative ways to understand time in order for this natural relationship to recur? Does an avid consciousness of how time relates to our environment and our bodies affect the way we live with time in today’s fast paced world?
“T-time”, explores the relationship between the constancy and relativity of time in order to deepen our understanding about this rich phenomenon.
Sports has been commonly mistaken to be associated for just health or survival benefits, and a form of distraction to most who prize practicality. Rather, sports is tied closely to many domains of life that is beyond the value of sports itself. Sports, either recreational or competitive, can be used as a means to cultivate values, such as respect, discipline and teamwork, which are commonly undermined in many other life areas. For that reason, this design study seeks to explore and visualize how can unorganized sports activities be of benefit as a source of value creation to each Singaporean individual by highlighting the importance of potential learning through sports.
In Singapore, the standard notion of family is recognised as the typical nuclear family with a Father, Mother, Child structure. However, the existence and unusual relationship dynamics amongst atypical families are not often known as less emphasis is given to these families in our social institutions. Belonging to an atypical family myself, my work seeks to study the relationship between my Father and I by charting its complex dynamics via a series of objects that offer a multiplicity of narratives, meanings and contradictions within a space structure that embodies the emotional and physical proximity between us.
