Playground (2016)
Nanyang Technological University
photography
Playground is a three part series of exploration of our childhood habit of playing in playgrounds. Playgrounds these days aren't crowded with screaming children playing hide and seek or parents and helpers bugging their children to go home. It is empty. It is a very sad truth. Children these days are overly consumed by technology and playing equals to playing in on iPads or phones. Furthermore, education systems have become so difficult that children are busy with tuitions as well. Therefore, this three part project acts as an observation and research project on the playground culture.
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Please look below for the breakdown of the parts.
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100 playgrounds (2016)
part 1
Nanyang Technological University
Photography
This series of 100 images are playgrounds around Singapore. Each playground was taken at each stop of the green line. Therefore, It took me 1 month to collect all these images. as I travelled from one end of the green line to the other end. I got of at each stop and went in search of playground stop to observe the space . It dismay, true enough al of these playgrounds were empty. Therefore I captured the playgrounds in it rawest form and collated them in these series. This is so that visitors can look at each picture and realise the emptiness in them. Furthermore, when putting all these painting inside we can also see how designers actually put in efforts too build these designers such that they are interactive and engaging for the children.
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Please click the link below for more about the process.
The stranger I met at the playground (2016)
Part 2
Nanyang Technological University
Video
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One morning I decided to go to the playground to video the playground from morning to night to take "Data" about the number of children playing. From morning to about afternoon there was no one and it was a school holiday. And then came this curious boy who wanted play in the playground alone. He then got so curious with my DSLR that he asked me what I was doing and I explained. The innocent child did not understand but then he invited me to play with him and so I did.while we were playing I sneaked a question or two about why he thinks no-one plays in the playground anymore and it was really sad.
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Please watch the video for more !
The Capsule
Part 3
Nanyang Technological university
cardboard, paint and photographs
This installation is a combination of my interpretation and the new society’s interpretation of the Playground. The capsule is a place that captures my old memories as I used to sit in these spaces in the past to write journals about anything and everything. The playground to me is a place where I am protected from the responsibilities of growing up and the worries of my childhood. I wanted to fuse the new society’s interpretation of the playground as being redundant and useless due to the upcoming game technologies.This installation aims to allow participants to immerse themselves and feel the conflict – notion of being treasured by the older generation and the redundancy felt by the new generation regarding the playground.
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It is a space for them to sit in and also be engaged through the stories from my old journals.
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Please scroll down to see more images and videos.
