I was walking pass through the Dhoby Ghaut mrt station in Singapore that day. And I saw this interactive game on the wall and it looks kinda interesting. So, I walk near to see what is it.
So this is a National Steps Challenge game. Users are ask to follow the instructions to win attractive prizes. Snap the QR code then submit to the website link they show.
Anyhow, the game start by asking the users to stand on the circle in front of the screen and wave to start the game. I expect this is a game created for Kinect Technology.
So, users are told to stay within the circle whereby the word STAND HERE is.
Next, users should watch out the incoming pose. Follow the pose and to pass through the cardboard pose to score the points.
The annual event Unite SG is here again in 2019. At Unite events, creativity and interactive learning take center stage. We can connect with incredibe artists, creators and programmers, learn from experts across all forms of entertainment and walk away with the knowledge and tools to boost our creative success.
So, me and my classmate attend the event together to explore new features about the Unity3D creative tool and participate in some open workshop to learn some technique in Unity Animation. The event was held in two days.
There are several creative design companies such as Unity Technologies, GCube, Ubisoft, DigiPen and more. On the second day, there was also a showcase event of some creative virtual reality and games portfolio of some companies and schools.
Overall, we learn a lot from that conference. We explored some new kind of world in experiencing digital media technologies.
Sustainability Gallery talk about the crisis of our climate change and how can we save the earth. They created interactive digital media to help create fun for visitors and easily learn and remember.
These kiosk talks about the climate action plan of improving energy and carbon efficiency.
The climate does not have to change as long as we do.
These are projected out from a projector. The projector have to position perfectly to match in all the circle tables. The fx really looks like water droplet.
Facing land, water, and energy constraints, Singapore is ever-motivated to innovate ways to optimise resources and limit pollution. This is an augmented reality showing the city of future.
This kiosk allows visitors to plant trees on a virtual world.
This area talks about how to manage waste at home, programmes and what are the current waste disposal system.
This game helps visitors to understand what is food wastage and how to reduce food waste.
These are some sustainability initiatives that Singapore has done.
Floating Utopias is a playful and imaginative exhibition that explores the social history of inflatable objects such as balloons, showing how they have been used in art, architecture, and social activism over the decades.
Utopia states an imagined place or state of things that everything is perfect.
Ever since the first hot-air balloon floated into the sky in the 18th century, inflatable objects have sparked the public’s imagination, generating utopian dreams of castles in the air, floating laboratories, and cloud cities. Floating Utopias shows the impact inflatables continue to have our collective imagination. The exhibition includes historical and contemporary works, featuring over 40 artworks by international and local artists, as well as hands-on workshops and intrusions in urban space.
The highlighted works of this exhibition are Somehow I Don’t Feel Comfortable by Momoyo Torimitsu in 2000. Momoyo is a Japanese artist based in New York. She works with sculpture, installation, and performance, and her works critique media stereotypes of cuteness and happiness, using both irony and humour.
Somehow I Don’t Feel Comfortable by Momoyo Torimitsu (Torimitsu, 2007)
In this gallery of two giant pink rabbits facing each other in a confined space,
This oversized bunny I created that looks down on you doesn’t seem cute. It’s kind of disturbing.
Momoyo Torimitsu
the rabbits act as a social critique of the constricted modern living style in many large cities in Asia. In Japan, small apartments are often called ‘rabbit hutches,’ a disparaging reference to their small size.
The next highlighted work is also a bunny. Unlike the work of Momoyo Torimitsu, this rabbit sculpture is designed to be large and to put outdoors in the cityscape of Singapore.
This inflatable art WALTER was created by a Singaporean artist Dawn Ng.
WALTER, let others to discover the extraordinary in their every day by looking at their surroundings as if they’re children again.
Dawn Ng
WALTER by Dawn Ng
The third highlight work is called Aerocene Explorer by Tomas Saraceno. This project is to create awareness about the state of the Earth’s atmosphere, and the need to evolve beyond using fossil fuels for air travel.
Aerocene Explorer by Tomas Saraceno (Aerocene, n.d.)
Aerocene Explorer is a backpack containing solar balloon and technological devices. The accompanying kits allow the user to launch the solar-powered balloon, and is designed to be activated by local communities to collect atmospheric and meteorologic data.
Aerocene Explorer by Tomas Saraceno (Aerocene, n.d.)
Tomas Saraceno is an Argentinian artist who originally trained initially as an architect. His works are created by the insights of engineering, physics, aeronautics and materials science.
The fourth highlight is a documentary of Graham Stevens’s poetic inflatable projects from the 1960s and 1970s, Atmosfields. His inflatable works focus on capturing and transforming natural energy sources from the environment. These artworks may be floating, flying or moving by the forces of nature, such as wind, water, and the sun.
Stevens was an assistant to legendary utopian architect, Buckminster Fuller in Paris in 1964, before collaborating with the French architectural group, Utopie in 1968. He was initially trained in architect.
The final highlight artworks if called Museum of the Moon by Luke Jerram in 2019. This floating sculpture of the moon is create using ultra-high resolution images captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. Spanning seven meters in diameter and scale of 1:600,000. Installed to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing by NASA astronauts in 1969, this Museum of the moon is designed to travel the world, exploring the diverse cultural, scientific and religious relationships that different societies have with the Moon. And yet somehow, despite these differences, the Moon connects us all.
This artwork has been created in partnership with the UK Space Agency, University of Bristol, and the Association of Science and Discovery Center.
My classmates and I attended the Bicentennial Experience on 23rd of July. We were divided in groups because the theater has limited space for 30 people each time. Before we enter the theater, there were some graphic papers and animation story presented in the lobby.
We went into the first atrium, gathered around a water fountain with a huge cylinder object. The water fell down hits the cylinder like rain, and projectors start to project out an earth, a map and time.
Atrium Experience
ACT ONE
Live performers performing on a moving travelator performing with added drama and dynamism to come of the most colourful exploits that unfolded in Singapore.
ACT TWO
The narrative of how Raffles came to Singapore in 1819 is retold from an omniscient perspective through the eyes of local wildlife. Visitors will also witness the arrival of industrious pioneers who were instrumental in shaping the fate of early Singapore.
ACT THREE
We were sitting on a rotating platform and covered with a 360 degree screen. This act captures the different facets of progress which helped the island make the big leap forward. We had also amaze by the colourful early 20th-century Singapore like she blossomed into a dynamic port city. This upbeat, fast-paced segment also an unflinching look at the grime beneath the glamour of industrialization and modernity.
ACT FOUR
After we walked pass a dim and tunnel of screen showing the difficult days of Singapore’s Japanese Occupation, we came into a small room filming about the harrowing story of Yap Yan Hong, a survivor of the Japanese-directed Sook Ching massacres.
ACT FIVE
Bear witness to how Singapore comes into its own after World War Two in this special ‘rain enclosure’ where shimmery water projections highlight the nation’s remarkable achievements. We are provided a see-through umbrella each before we enter the room. The environment is kinda cold like it really rained. From the road to independence to promising glimpse of the future, this space will provide an uplifting finale.
Drug Free SG is a campaign supported by the Singapore Government Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB). CNB was established as a drug enforcement agency entrusted with the responsibilities of drug eradication.
My friends and I participated in the Drug Free SG carnival, which is held by CNB. We went there to explore some of the Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).
At first, I saw a booth with plants and a box of soil. This booth is supported by Singapore Buddhist Welfare Services. The staff was teaching a kid on how to plant his Choy Sum (vegetable). Planting a vegetable is to help the individual to learn a new healthy skill and to strengthen their mental resiliency. Besides that, it is reintegrating society to be a responsible citizen.
After that, me and my friends went to try the VR. The VR storyline was that the ‘user’ walking along a street, met a drug dealer and then he asks ‘user’ to take the drug. There were two choices, accept or reject and go away. The choice the user choose will affect the ending of the decision he or she made.
This VR was created using Unity engine, while the scenes were recorded using 360 degree camera. It was a good experience. This VR story is to educate people about what happens if you take drugs and what can you do if you met a drug dealer.
The other one is the Augmented Reality Section. I saw a girl using an iPad to scan on the card placed on the table. The story is also the same as the VR at the campaign. There will be a drug dealer appeared on the screen when you scan the card, he will start talking to you, and you have to choose which choice option you would like to reply.
Last but not least, the campaign has also created a game to create awareness. The game is called Seal No To Drug (CnbAR). It can be installed from Google Play or App Store. I recorded the video gif below from my phone. As you can see, it is a puzzle game created using the Unity engine.
Bicentennial Creative Design Talk is a talk session given by the speakers Gene Tan (Executive Director, National Library of Singapore) and Brian Gothong Tan (Multimedia, Robot Playground Media) about the collaboration with the team behind of Bicentennial Experience which is featured at the Skills Future Festival in Singapore.
The sharing topics during the talk included the overall creative concept, philosophy and vision for the experience, the challenges and implements, insights and details into the various digital cinematic features and the integration between the multimedia and physical realms.
All you can do is Step Back In Time
Rhythm of Love, 1990 Performer, Kylie Minogue
Stepping back in time, going back into the past of Singapore is one of the objective in this Bicentennial Experience. If Singapore is to face the challenges of today and continue to prevail in future, Singaporean must look to their past for lessons. The Bicentennial Experience is about experiencing a travel back to early Singapore by watching an animated short film: The Bicentennial Trilogy 1299 with a live experience of the digital media.
The team in the Singapore Bicentennial Office includes (from left) project director Wan Wee Pin, executive director Gene Tan, assistant director of content and exhibitions Chang Yueh Siang, and manager of content and exhibitions Joshua Sim. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI (StraitsTimes, 2018)
You learn a lot on every film. Batman Begins taught me a huge amount about how to express the feeling of an emotional story to an audience in a mainstream way.
Christopher Nolan
Mr. Gene had a thought of creating an emotional experience of the history of Singapore to enhance the overall experience by feeling, listening, and watching it through the lost world. The sequence planned to be from the bright and pull down into the dark.
The year that the experience travel has been confirmed to be year 1819, 1900, 1942 and 1968. Even though 1819 was a turning point in Singapore’s trajectory, for Singapore’s rich history goes even further back, to the 1300s. If Singapore is to face the challenges of today and continue to prevail in future, Singaporean must look to their past for lessons.
(Bicentennial, n.d.)
There were two sets of ending to decide in the animated story. One is that the spirits of generation appear in the Padang while the rain persists, which is inspired by the movie Kubo and the Two Strings. The other one is upon the arrival of Sang Nila Utama, the clearing of skies then reveal the white sand beach of Padang field in the 14th century.
After Mr. Gene founds Brian, he explained to Brian what kind of feel he wants, something like the Detective D. Before they start filming the act, they had done research and readings, picking story which is suitable for the timeline as they need to squeeze the animated short story into an hour, and storyboarding. Brian and his team also discovered the different races of people that were in early Singapore. The people wore colorful clothing and how the clothing were designed for different races.
There is a certain experience that Brian remembers during the act. Brian has told his team to create a 3D city of the habour and they want the flying camera shooting the scene inside the virtual city of early Singapore just like the opening of Detective D.
Besides that, the team was worried about the timing and speed for the part where the talent need to walk through the time machine. They had no idea if the animation had enough duration to insert into the background and what can they show. After preparing all the solutions and testing in 3 months, they filmed it.
Moreover, due to lack of beach in Singapore, the team had to flew over to Malacca to film a certain scene. Furthermore, there’s a part where the British Warship sinked into the sea, the team had to film the scene at a swimming pool. Due to the prop; the ship is made of floating material, the divers had to dive into the swimming pool and to pull the ship, tied them with rocks to the bottom of the pool. This took them 3 hours.
Research & Development in DM 