Singapore Art Week (SAW) is an annual art festival that brings along international art lovers and their community together and explore, discover and express art in a wide variety of ways.
As the pinnacle of Singapore’s visual arts scene, SAW returned for its 9th edition from 22 to 30 January 2021 and celebrated the coming together of the vibrant artist community in these unprecedented times as they simultaneously navigate new modes of artmaking and presentation with different online and virtual experiences to explore.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, SAW 2021 released SAW Digital, which compiles and gathers exhibitions, creations, and interactive activities for international participants and the public to immerse in these virtual experiences to make art appreciation possible during unprecedented times.
Intersection of Art and Science: Augmented Reality Brings Life to Art in “Wild Critters” Project
The art community, like everyone, has been widely impacted by the force and breadth of the pandemic this year, spurring the art world to find new solutions for showing art.
With that, Alvin Tan, co-founder of homegrown arts and design collective, PHUNK, launched the “Wild Critters” project, using technology to curate a fully immersive creative experience in the art showcase.
The “Wild Critters” project draws on the idea of endangered species often hidden from sight, with five artists collaborating to create new species of rare creatures for everyone to spot through an Augmented Reality (AR) Art Installation.
Real or imagined? These endangered species neither exist in the physical nor metaphysical reality. They are fictional endangered critters awaiting to be discovered, but only through scanning a QR code with an AR filter on Instagram can they then be captured and shared through social media.
“Isn’t this an exciting time for art as we’re pushed to experiment with new mediums and ways of engaging it? Our reality became altered through the pandemic, but it gave rise to augmented reality, a digital realm which I believe, Wild Critters roam. Peek into the imaginary world of unseen creatures, here to give you an awkward hug, or a shy dance to make you smile,” said Tan.
“I’m delighted to be given the opportunity to create Wild Critters with this group of talented artists, all whose works I love a lot, and I trust our critters will bring a little virtual joy to everyone during this trying time. The beauty of technology and social media is that we can enhance social connection – bringing art to the people, and people to art,” he added.
Inner Like The OutAR
An audio-visual art experience, titled ‘Inner Like The OutAR’ combines augmented reality, set installation and sound design to imitate the magic of nature. Its various interactions subject audiences to the ways in which we use nature as a commodity.
Inner Like The OutAR featured psychotropic environments built digitally by artists Reza Hasni and Siah Tiong Hong, amongst set design by Tina Fung (Space Objekt studio) and sound design by electronic producer Intriguant. It is presented by art programming consultancy MAMA MAGNET, part of Singapore Art Week 2021 and supported by the National Arts Council.
An interdisciplinary installation in Singapore using Web AR - or augmented reality via web browsers have never before been presented on this scale. It uses the AR medium to ask how technology can give art lovers more access to their physical reality.
The nature theme was conceptualised by artist Reza Hasni as a response to Singaporeans spending more time outdoors since the circuit breaker. It felt natural for the motion graphics artist to turn to a physical showcase after almost a year of digital events.
Inner Like The OutAR offered ways for audiences to consider how we view nature as our great reset. The experience is a follow-up to Hasni’s solo digital showcase, Centre For Altered Togetherness which launched in August 2020 and offered a virtual trip into six digital worlds.
Each art interaction in the room is interdisciplinary, and combines the expertise of each of the four artists involved: illustration, interaction design, soundscapes and installation.
Founder and curator Tulika Ahuja of MAMA MAGNET hoped that “the various perspectives of nature offered by the diverse artists can present Singapore with a fresh lens of our fragile relationship with the natural world, and also with the role of art and exhibitions in general.”
This looks so cool!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
