Sunday, May 28, 2006
Are you ready to TAP?
Let's TAP - Talk About Place!
What?
How would you Talk About a Place? What makes a place more than just a space? Through this multi-media exhibition we will show 10 unique ways to understand a place. Together with an international public forum on making architectural design more available to the people, this event will heighten people's awareness on place-making, and get them Talking About Places!
Why?
The public, especially youths in Singapore today need to know that they are an important voice of the society and city in which they live in. They have a big part to play in shaping and influencing the kind of place they want to live in. We hope that as young people making a statement about the place we call home, we will be able to encourage and inspire the youths in Singapore that they can make a difference and an important contribution to the kind of place they want Singapore to be.
Where?
National Library Building - a place for the people and one of the most talked about local buildings
When?
3 - 17 Jun 2006 (in conjunction with the theme of the month - The Art Festival)
The story behind it...
One fine day in the SP archi studio, my ex lecturer entered the doors and got our attention. It was simple. Re : act (Really Architecture), a society made up of NUS students and alumni, were coming together to hold an exhibition at the National Library. My teacher graduated from the same school in 1991. Naturally he came to promote it.
To cut a long story short, he told us about the exhibition, asked us to come down to SP one sat morning to hear them present about their exhibition, and viola!, here we are, SP students exhibiting alongside NUS students, united as the only 2 tertiary schools of architecture in this little nation. hehehe.
Despite our ongoing ultra-stressful apartment project, the little group of us have still managed to squeeze out projects of our own to show to the public and press, and we're all set for an awesome time. Its eye-opening to go behind the inner workings of an exhibition, and to see how they managed to get big sponsors like MUJI, 3M, Bluescope Steel, NLB and whatnot to supply the little nuances needed for an exhibition.
My first time participating in a public exhibition! It sure gets me excited when the NUS peeps reported that Lianhe Zaobao, The Straits Times, CNA, Mediacorp, Singapore Architect magazine, and other assorted publications & magazines have all agreed to either advertise for us or list us in the listing of events. And it also excites me when Re : act says that it is applying to register as an official society, with us automatically becoming Associate Members.
Oooohh... *addicted to architecture*
jOhn thought at 7:21 PM
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Ooga Booga.
Ignore the title. It was for lack of a better title that i put that =)
This post shall be pretty simple.
Its based on three big topics that have been running through my mind at time of writing.
Here we go.
"Who I am depends on who you are."
-For those who try to understand me, I have no answer. Even I elude myself. But a trend I noticed, John-as-you-know-him is not set in stone. I seem to put on different skins around different people, because everyone has different characteristics, hobbies, likes & dislikes, and values. Im tailor-made for you, people. Hai.
"Children are like water: they flow everywhere."
-This sentence was formed when I walked across an overhead bridge at Parkway Parade and noticed children climbing down. I realised that children are fluid. They get their tiny little forms into every probable space. If not for the tightly-spaced steel balustrades on the bridge, we would have human roti prata on the roads below. Then, I also realised that this sentence applies not only to their actions, but to their characters! Children are ductile and malleable. They can be moulded and changed. Raise your child well.
"Show me a neat studio and I'll show you an artistic failure."
-After vising LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, I realised the school is a beautiful mess. Short buildings all over, old and new. The workshops are cramped and messy, piled high with clay, paint and whatnot. I thought, how can such a wreck produce some of Asia's most creative artsy-fartsy people? How come only offices are housed in neat, clean buildings?
The conclusion? Only dead robots live in neat abodes. Tell your mom that.
jOhn thought at 11:45 AM
Monday, May 15, 2006
You wanted to put WHAT in your mouth?!
Okay.
So I have a pack of cigarettes here in front of me.
Yep.
Shocked?
I guessed so.
Now that I have your attention...
It's experiment time!!!
*Waves his knife happily*
So.
Lets take this knife to EVERY SINGLE INNOCENT-LOOKING WHITE STICK IN THERE.
OOooo.. if you look at it this way it almost looks like a tree.
To all you ciggi3x-loving people. This cost $11. And it also happens to come with a Debilitating Health & Death Guarantee, too.
Go ahead. Light up. You know you want an excruciating death.
jOhn thought at 9:30 AM
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Evolutionists? Fools.
This post originated from a passing thought.
Ever since goodness-knows-when, agnostics and aethists sought to find an explanation of where Man came from. God has a straightforward answer. but noo, these people did not agree.
For me, I think the Humans are the best of God's creation. He took the best aspects of all animals and put them into one Mega Mammal: the hOmOsApIeN. This list explains a few, and is by no means exhaustive.
1. Our bodies look like that of monkeys.
2. Only humans and dolphins have sex for pleasure. (haa.)
3. Our hearts resemble that of pigs - bio students should know.
4. Our voices can be mimicked by parrots.
yEp. Any more suggestions? =)
jOhn thought at 6:56 AM
Monday, May 08, 2006
Hmm.
Fact: Singapore is ranked 146 out of 167 globally, in terms of media freedom.
Fact: The newspapers and television no longer have a stranglehold on public information. And blogs and independent websites like singaporeelection.blogspot.com serve to tell the real truth behind each election, rally by rally, speech by speech.
Hehehe.
Fact: This blog is not a politically intelligent machine. Its words are extreme and biased, serving solely to allow you space to think about your past, reflect on your present, and imagine your future. Here, you will not be bogged down by cumbersome reasoning. So go ahead, entertain those thoughts. Roll them around in your head. Make new ones.
"I think, therefore I am." - Descartes
Peace.
jOhn thought at 2:16 PM
Sunday, May 07, 2006
The Worrying Trend
Ok, now for a follow-up, in SLIGHTLY toned down language, trying to control my disbelief.
In light of the recent GE, nothing much's changed. Saturday came and went, people cast their votes, watched their screens with anticipation, were hopeful for their supported parties. When the dust settled, the votes counted, we could safely say that the results are no less than what was expected.
But what is worrying is a huge majority of youth support the opposition.
This is a tangible spirit of rebellion. The youth's trademark is their fire of passion, but it is well-known that this fire is temporary. People grow up. SO GROW UP! How many adults now mock their foolish old days? In fact, those who dOn't would most probably be chronic failures in life, too caught up in utopic (and myopic) dreams to strive to better their current situation. The same spirit of anti-establishment, which teens must direct at SOMETHING, is now shifted from parents, to teachers, and now even the ruling party, whom they rebel against just for the sake of rebelling and finding fault, fully fulfilling the characteristics of crowd mentality. The same crowd mentality that made marijuana phenomenally popular in American COLLEGES (read: 18-20 year-olds: YOUTH) in the 1960s.
Shame on you to even live in an air conditioned flat, study at the Government's schools and even not die from tuberculosis. If you beat up your mom and left home, you would be a detestable abomination to return home and demand that she give you your daily allowance still.
If you desire so much to see your fathers toppled, then move out. They, who bought you your room and your stuff, who helped you up when you fell down as a baby, they don't need you one bit, so stop being a leech. Go support yourself on the street. Be bloody independant for goodness' sake. Fly to Australia and whine about them like a baby. Go find your education somewhere else. Do not live under their protective umbrella, biting the hand that feeds you. The very fact that you are even complaining of homework means that you actually have homework.
With age and experience come wisdom, and only the wisest know what a democracy in the Asian context demands from its people. Asia is not the place for ruling by committee, but by a powerful majority with the interests of the nation in mind.
Like I said, Singapore's days are numbered.
"Only those who study architecture would know how miraculous Singapore's story is, how powerful and efficient the ruling party is. Other parties only talked about things. The PAP are the only ones who risked themselves to actually DELIVER on their promises, despite international criticism and mockery (an American reporter called Lee Kuan Yew "Asia's Hitler". Look, Hitler wrecked his country. LKY made it one of the best nations in the world), and up till today, even nations of 2 billion people turn to our urban planners and economists for help. Look, even China's future is trusted to Singaporeans! China's new cities, most larger than Singapore itself, are built by Singaporeans!
What kind of miracle is this? Which other island in the world is more powerful and respected? Which other island nation's leaders are allowed to seat on the same seats alongside the leaders of superpowers, and granted the same honour? Why could they do it? Simply because they were given the mandate and blessing to rule their people, by their people, even though the people sometimes had doubts. If an opposition party takes power, they will be afraid of their people, not daring to do anything but maintain the status quo, because it was the people that gave them the power to rule. The PAP are not like this. It is their spirit of "We do it my way, and you wait and see me proven right. Until then, shut up." that made Singapore a poison shrimp, not to be trifled with and trampled upon. Do not trash all that."
-Me
jOhn thought at 11:00 PM
GE: My penny's worth of thoughts.
So you deranged guys keep wanting to vote for the opposition, huh?
Well, let me tell you what I predict.
PAP will still get the support of the older generation. Young punks, blindly citing freedom of speech as a GIANT, PARAMOUNTLY IMPORTANT factor, together with the diehard enemies of the PAP, will give their votes to the opposition.
In 10 years' time, the man who built Singapore will most probably be dead. The older generation will begin dying off, too. Opposition parties big and small gain ground in parliament, and with no party exceeding 30% in majority, policies and initiatives get debated and debated until the cows come home. Progress is excruciatingly slow. People get frustrated. Maybe they will end up like Taiwan and start getting into fisticuffs in the Parliament floor.
Meanwhile. Everything that other countries complained about is revoked. It is now legal to carry 10 kilograms of amphetamine on your body. Death sentence is reduced to lifetime jail. Caning by rattan is altered to caning by feather duster. Newspapers can post pornographic images and religious content for all they care. Certain extremists begin a holy war. But at least, in all this mess, we have our beloved freedom of speech.
30 years down the line, Singapore is annexed by Malaysia and fails to retain sovereignity. The last remnants of PAP resign and become legend to a country now described by foreign press as "Atlantis after the ocean swallowed it up".
In all this shit, where will I be? Far far away, in sunny Germany since university, starting a new life and a stable job as architect cum urban planner. Everyday I read the news and shed tears at the country that I ONCE was proud to call my home. But its okay, at least now they have Freedom Of Speech. hurrah.
To all my friends, if I were to visit you next time, I'd surely use my success to get me an armoured Mercedes. Just so I dont get carjacked a-la Indian Contractor in Iraq. Or have a bazooka shot at me cos im $1 richer than that punk on the street. Oh, I forgot. 1 Euro in year 2030 = S$10,000.
Cheers to the opposition.
jOhn thought at 12:00 PM
Heheh.
jOhn thought at 12:00 PM
Friday, May 05, 2006
Mary Poppins is alive..
15 Fantasy Projects, by John:
1. Plan a new CBD for Singapore
2. Design an Olympic Village
3. Design a new financial hub skyscraper, min height 1km
4. Plan a cruise ship
5. Design a space colony
6. Design an underground city
7. Plan a new red light district for Singapore
8. Redesign W5A!!! unlimited budget!!
9. Design a Gothic cathedral
10. Renovate the Parthenon
11. Redesign New York State Penitentiary
12. Renovate Himeiji Castle
13. Design a torture chamber
14. Build a new Forbidden Palace in China, to be painted bright pink
15. Extend and modernise the Great Wall of China, which must include an F1 circuit
heheheh. You wish.
(Note: W5A is the block number of the archi studio in SP. It used to be a large flat-roofed workshop, resembling a large brick warehouse, one of the few that were the first batch of buildings built when SP moved to its Dover Road site in the 1970s. heh. Renovated and air conditioned years ago, it houses the day-to-day activites of archi students, in a pretty cramped but suitable environment full of comp labs and drafting studios. Many have complained about the staidness of the place and the indignity of the plain brick-and-steel building that ironically, Architecture calls its home. Renovating and vitalising it is every SP Architecture student's dream. LOL)
jOhn thought at 3:09 PM
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
and i said in reply, my voice a whisper, suppressing its weakness, its quiver, as if in fear of the great spirits that govern my art..
"Don't you know? Can't you see? This is not the profession of Man; this is God's own profession. To create from dust of the Earth, that is not human; it is divine!..."
and a tear streaked painfully across my face, as realisation floored me with dread, with despair, that no word in any, any existing language, can ever even attempt to phrase what was pleading release from my soul. Already my eyes were woeful, ailed, begging for a hint of understanding.. Can't you see?
This profession is not a form of art. It IS art. The culmination of every discipline of art, of sculture, of illustration, of music, of literature, of performance, all these bow to her presence.
Anyone so trained could design a building, a box of concrete, in just the same way any human can pen a sketch. But, it is within the knowledge of the select few, of those that fall in love with Architecture, that she chooses to reveal unto them her deepest secrets; her power.
And oh what a release that is! To gain that knowledge, that is the closest attainable level of divinity. The power to influence, the power to change, to evoke, to affect, that precise power is sought after, and oh how many would give billions to grasp just the tip of this iceberg. Such is the power of an architect, that in his hands dwells the power to manipulate all five human senses.
Such power cannot be attained within a month; nor years. It takes decades to fully grasp its magnitude, and to wield it confidently, without err. That, that is the reward of those who peservere, a privilege akin to that of immortality itself.
"The fear of architecture, and the subsequent desire to conquer it; that is the beginning of wisdom."
-Me
jOhn thought at 9:07 PM