SHOWCASE: Eugene Tan

Eugene is a current DesignSingapore Council scholar studying at the Architectural Association School of London with RIBA part 1 qualification. Before moving to London, Eugene first quit engineering at the National University of Singapore and moved to Lasalle College of Fine Arts where he graduated with first class honours in Interior Design. Eugene first showed glimpse of promise when his proposal in the International Vivocity Student Design Competition was selected as semi-finalist by a competition panel which featured Toyo Ito. Upon graduation, Eugene returned to his alma mater as interior design part time tutor and was part of the curatorial team for the Singapore Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2008. Eugene's work experience included beyond interiors such as architecture and masterplanning. Apart from architecture, Eugene loves portraiture, figure drawing and seek relaxation by strolling or running in nature reserves.

Name: Eugene Tan
Location: London, UK
Website: NA
Email: click here

Boo Junfeng announced as [SIN]efest curator

Celebrated Singapore filmmaker/ Director, Boo Jungfeng has been announced as the curator for [SIN]efest, UK's largest Independent Singapore Film Festival, showcasing Singapore Films over a 3 day period.

Boo Junfeng is one of Singapore's most prolific young filmmakers. Since 2005 his short films have won several awards at the Singapore International Film Festival. Trained in film schools in Singapore and Spain, his works often centre on themes of alienation, kinship, love and sexuality. His short films, as well as his segment in the omnibus feature film, LUCKY 7, have won him acclaim at numerous film festivals, including Berlin Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam and Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. SANDCASTLE, his first feature film, was the first film from Singapore to be selected at the prestigious International Critics' Week at Cannes Film Festival in 2010.

AEP Fashion Workshop by creative [SIN]ergy

Creative [SIN]ergy organised a fashion workshop for AEP (Art Elective Programme) students visiting from Singapore. The workshop was held at Dragon Hall in Covent Garden on Saturday 19 June 2010. The group was a mix of 15 Secondary students from Cedar Girls and Tanjong Katong Girls.

The Fashion workshop was conducted by Fashion Designer and Creative [SIN]ergy member, Lilia Yip. She shared with the students first-hand experience of working as a fashion designer in the UK and introduce them to the ideas generation process. Engaging students in hands-on activities and discussion about the first stage of the design process which involves research and collation of inspiration and information.

Lilia started the workshop with a quick ice-breaker called Dress A Friend in Ten. The students were divided into groups and given ten minutes to select one person per group to dress up with materials and present their creation to the class. This was a good warm up and it got students acquainted with how materials work on the body, basic techniques of draping and how to generate ideas quickly.
This was followed by a well orchestrated presentation on What is fashion design? What are the fundamentals (such as form, colour and material) that every designer needs to decide upon? Where and how do designers get their inspiration and ideas?

The finally activity was called Idea Collage. The groups prepared beforehand, bringing to the workshop images they like from fashion designers, photographers, artists, musicians, images they have taken themselves. These images were from magazines, the internet, photocopied from books, film stills, photos, scraps of fabric or a particular button.
Using the images they had as well as ideas from the ice-breaker, each group brainstorm on a concept for one garment design showing the colour, form and materials they have decided on.
Creating a collage that will act as a mood board showing the colour, shape and material and overall concept for a garment and presented to the class for discussion.

This activity gave students a hands-on experience of how to research and edit their ideas. It also introduces students to the basic principles of fashion design, which are in essence art, cultural and social aesthetics with a human interaction and wearability function.

The workshop concluded with a discussion of the emergence of sustainable and ethical fashion.

What is - Uniquely Singapore? a generi-City project

WHAT IS UNIQUELY SINGAPORE? A GENERI-CITY PROJECT?
Creative [SIN]ergy presents, Uniquely Singapore? a generi-City project. This project is an architectural investigation of Singaporean spaces as generic. This project seeks to consolidate a re-reading of Singapore’s urban spaces that differs from /reacts to the dominant image of unique as enforced by tourism, literature. Although being dubbed as a city with a “unique” blend of different cultures by the Singapore Tourism Board under its previous slogan of “Uniquely Singapore”, Singapore is by default like any other cities characterized by a generic set of spaces that organizes and manages daily life. Rather than claiming uniqueness through cultural references in architectural expression or iconic figurative gestures; this project aims to rediscover the uniqueness of Singapore’s urban spaces through the most generic and banal scenes of everyday life. Through the generic, latent conditions within the city will be revealed.

Six key activity spaces which host collective life in Singapore have been identified:

- Transit Space
- Eating Space
- Leisure Space
- Retail Space
- Living Space
- Occupational Space

These spaces will be juxtaposed against other cities which provide a basis for analyzing the similarity and difference in their spatial usage in hosting these activities. Through this comparison conversation, the project hopes to dissect sets of generic architectural typology that provide the framework and characteristics of these spaces. Therefore, it is only through the celebration of the generic that the uniqueness of Singapore can be achieved.

WHAT IS GENERI-CITY?
Generi-City is a project that investigates generic spaces - airports, shopping malls, food courts, fitness centers, etc - within the city. It hopes to offer a point of departure from Rem Koolhaas’s commentary on the “The Generic City” in S,M,L,XL through images and photographs.

Given the complete ubiquity of generic spaces around the world, cities are trying to resist it by overly emphasizing individuality and differences through their architectural ‘masterpieces’ in an attempt to remake their city - otherwise known as the Bilbao effect. With each city wanting to be special, outdoing others by creating strings of iconic museums, opera houses and viewing towers, the generic condition has become even more pronounced.

Therefore, rather than claiming uniqueness through cultural references in architectural expression or iconic figurative gestures; this project aims to rediscover the uniqueness of urban spaces through the most generic and banal scenes of everyday life. The generic will be celebrated in order to reveal the uniqueness of the city.


WHAT IS UNIQUELY SINGAPORE?
Uniquely Singapore? is an architectural investigation of Singaporean spaces as generic. This project seeks to consolidate a re-reading of Singapore’s urban spaces that differs from/reacts to the dominant image of unique as enforced by tourism, literature. Although being dubbed as a city with a “unique” blend of different cultures by the Singapore Tourism Board under its previous slogan of “Uniquely Singapore”, Singapore is by default like any other cities characterized by a generic set of spaces that organizes and manages daily life. Through a series of conversations between six pairs of architects, we hope to rediscover the uniqueness of Singapore through the generic.

Urban Prairie

Urban Prairie by Architects, Jackson Tan and Ernie Lew of In Square Lab.

Urban Prairie
June 19th 2010 – July 4th 2010 - 24hrs
127 Wardour Street, Soho, London W1F 0NL

MPC Digital in Soho will play host to ‘Urban Prairie’ an intuitive interactive art installation conceived and designed by Architecture firm in square lab and MPC Digital department. The project; developed in collaboration with existential ltd is for the London Festival of Architecture 2010 which runs around the capital June 19th – July 4th. The installation underlines the notion of bringing the inside out; whilst blurring the boundaries between architecture, interactive installation and art.

At its core; Urban Prairie is an experimental installation that illustrates the opportunity of merging the real world with the ever-increasing virtual environments we find ourselves living in. Through intelligent design and interventions, we aim to synchronize physical materials with real-time graphics in a bid to create one experience.

An array of optical sensors and arduino boards are used to capture and comprehend the movements of passers by in front of MPC London building at 127 Wardour St. This digital data is then translated into kinetic responses via a series of servos; creating the phenomenon of a sea of grass swaying in the breeze. The motion of the 'real' grass is in turn measured by our software and translated, after sufficient delay, to a virtual prairie on four 42" screens behind the 'real' grass.

The combined result is an interactive 'Urban Prairie" which passers by can interact with through their movements in space. By varying their speed and location in front of the windows, passers by can generate wind disturbance that travels from the ‘real’ grass to the virtual prairie seamlessly and eventually fading off into the horizon.

After the LFoA (www.lfa2010.org); the team plans to present the project in a variety of global locations.

For more information contact;

Sophie Trainor
Head of PR and Marketing
MPC
+44 20 7494 7915
sophie-t@moving-picture.com

Jackson Tan, BA(Arch), Dip.Arch, RIBA
Director
In square lab
+ 44 20 7740 2171
jackson.tan@insquarelab.co.uk

Ticket Information:It is free and open to everyone

Uniquely Singapore - Distinctively London? Correspondents Announced

Uniquely Singapore? a generi-City project Correspondents:

Kelvin Ang - Head of Heritage Studies, URA (SG)

Vince Ong - Architect, Fosters and Partners (UK)

Justin Zhuang - Writer, reclaimland.sg (SG)

Lingxiu Chong - Architectural Student, AA (UK)

Randy Tan - Director, ZARCH (SG)

Agnus Yit - Architectural Student, AA (UK)

May Anne Lee - Director, Makk Architects (SG)

Kevin Hung - Architect, Serie Architecture (UK)

Yue Han Teow - Media Student, NTU (SG)

Janita Han - Architect, Fashion Architecture Taste (F.A.T) (UK)

Yicheng Pan - Director, Project Architecture and the City (P.A.C) (SG)

Voon Wong - Director, voonwong&bensonsaw (UK)

Curated by:
Calvin Chua

Uniquely Singapore? a generi-City project Organising Team

Uniquely Singapore? a generi-City project

ORGANISING TEAM

Lead Curator:

Calvin Chua - Architectural Student, AA

Event Organiser:

Brian Tan - Creative [SIN]ergy

Curating Team:

Kai Hian Ong - Architectural Student, AA

Eugene Tan - Architectural Student, AA

Brian Cheng - Architectural Student, AA

Joel Ho - Architectural Student, AA

Luke Tan - Architectural Student, AA

Web Team:

Johnny Gao - Architectural Student, AA

Sarah Ho - Architectural Assistant, PLP Architecture

AEP Talks Organised by Creative [SIN]ergy

Creative [SIN]ergy organised at talk for AEP (Art Elective Programme) students visiting from Singapore. These talks were held at Dragon Hall in Covent Garden on Saturday 12 June 2010. The group was a mix of 35 Art, Design & Technology and Literature students from Kuo Chuan Presbyterian.

Established Product Designer, Kok-Chian Leong gave a delightful presentation of his projects from Seymourpowell. Creative [SIN]ergy member Brian Tan was also presented at the talks.

The talks were an insight to the practical and real aspect of the creative industry from people who are currently in the creative industry in the UK. This included the sharing of experience and some samples of their work.

SHOWCASE: Kellie Koh

Kellie Koh, since young,adores little details, colours, textures, and anything that is random. With her random and passionate soul for arts and design,she pursued her first degree in BA (hons) fashion design at Lasalle college of the arts Singapore. During her Final degree in Lasalle, she was published in Harper's Bazaar Singapore August 2007 issue as the top 5 most promising designers in Lasalle College of The Arts.Realizing her forte in prints and colours, she then pursued her second degree,BA (Hons) Textile Design - Weave at London’s prestigious Art College,Central St Martins School Of the arts.

She loves prints but, She loves weave even more because of its complexity and it allows her to create little details from different inspirations. She also loves the idea behind fashion and lastly, not forgetting, her big dreams waiting to come true that kept her always persistent, cheerful, determined and motivated !

Name: Kellie Koh
Location: London, UK
Web: www.kelliekoh.com
Contact: click here

79 Music Reviews

[SIN]efest Logo Revealed

Creative [SIN]ergy x Cinefest Productions
presents[SIN]efest is a 3 day film festival showcasing Singapore Films. The screening will be curated by a celebrated Singapore filmmaker/ Director, which will run form Thursday through Saturday (proposed dates, 4 - 6 November 2010).

The [SIN]efest logo is designed by Creative [SIN]ergy member Yong Ping Loo.

SHOWCASE: Tina Tsang

Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2005, Tina Tsang has stretched her creativity and skills across multi-discipline design areas from fashion to moving images. Tina's background in animation had influenced her design approach in creating products with great tactility and three dimensional effect. Her experiment with new materials and techniques are evident in her "Blaue Blume" collection which applies Victorian lace onto ceramics.

In September 2006, Tina started Undergrowth Design and venture into her own design collection. The "Blaue Blume" teacup and saucer was first launched at Designersblock during the London Design Festival in September 2007. "Blaue Blume" rapid success and recognition saw the range extended to include the full tea service.

Tina's Collection had been shown in ICFF in New York and Maison et Objet in PAris. Some of Tina's clients inclue the renowned restaurant, Sketch. The "Blaue Blume" range had been sold in US, Europe, Middle East and Japan.

Name: Tina Tsang
Location: London, UK
Website: www.undergrowthdesign.com
Contact: click here

Uniquely Singapore? a generi-City project Logo Unveiled

This project is an architectural investigation of Singaporean spaces as generic. The project seeks to consolidate a re-reading of Singapore’s urban spaces that differs from /reacts to the dominant image of unique as enforced by tourism, literature. Rather than claiming uniqueness through cultural references in architectural expression or iconic figurative gestures; this project aims to rediscover the uniqueness of Singapore’s urban spaces through the most generic and banal scenes of everyday life. Through the generic, latent conditions within the city will be revealed.

The Uniquely Singapore? a generi-City project logo is designed by Creative [SIN]ergy member Sarah Ho.

A6 /future/ installation

A6 /future/ installation to showcase the postcards in Singapore. This Exhibition was held from from 22 - 29 May 2010 at Hairloom & Caramel, #01-50/52, Shaw Towers, 100 Beach Road.
A6 /future/ was shown during London Design Festival in 2009.

Special thanks to Brian Chia, Mindflyer and Kuanth.

Click here to read more about the London event.