Page 32 - Year in Review 2018/2019

STORYTELLING IN
SOUTHEAST ASIAN

FILMS

Our inaugural film exhibition, held from
16 August to 4 September 2018, featured
films and short stories by Cannes invited
filmmakers Kanakan-Balintagos (formerly
known as Auraeus Solito), Garin Nugroho
and Malaysian director Sherman Ong.
The narratives of each demonstrated how
stories were told in a Southeast Asian
context using techniques and vernacular
unique to the region. Reflecting upon
and adapted from topics personal to
the makers, the films addressed issues
surrounding the complexities of daily life,
and beliefs and traditions within their local
communities and cultures. They also paid
homage to their roots and origins. While the costumes and props. These all illustrated the construction of storytelling through
stories of Southeast Asia have long been film and captured an archive of the original experience on screen.
conveyed through oral narratives, dance
and performance, the filmmakers used new Held in conjunction with the exhibition was an informative film workshop on
technology and the digital era to translate Southeast Asian storytelling techniques for Screen Media students. Nugroho, Ong
perspectives in filmic experiences to inform and film director Kong Pahurak discussed ‘Narratives: how the use of particular
our realities. Along with film screenings, the techniques tell stories in a Southeast Asian context.’ Participants were introduced
exhibition presented a collection of stills, to the cultural systems that inform storytelling traditions and the key elements of
as photographed during the mainstream film creation. Four workshops were conducted on 16, 17, 20 and 21 August 2018.
filmmaking process, and objects used as

SUPERIMPOSING SPACES:
EXPLORATIONS ON REINVENTING

MATURE DEVELOPMENTS

This exhibition was the result of a unique collaboration
between the Institute of Southeast Asian Arts (ISEAA) and
the 3D Design Programme at NAFA. Following the previous
year’s successful inaugural collaboration involving renowned
local architect Tay Kheng Soon, it was the second instalment
of a model where content was weaved with the curriculum.
This three-month-long partnership, from August to October
2018, was kick-started by a three-day workshop by Professor
Hikaru Kinoshita from Kansai University, Osaka, who was
invited by ISEAA. Involving 35 Landscape and Architecture
students in Year 3, the workshop covered the topics of
superimposing spaces and adaptive reuse of spaces with Kinoshita. The students enrolled in
the Design Studio module were tasked with identifying issues of neglected space through
various perspectives and through research and analysis of their allocated mature estate —
Tanjong Pagar Plaza or Bras Basah Complex. The practical fieldwork fuelled creative design
and solutions stemming from imagination and site studies, as well as comprehensive research.

As Landscape and Architecture students, it is imperative that they understand the importance
of sensitivity and the relationship between people, space and environmental forces in their
design outcomes. The participating students used their understanding to formulate design
solutions that resolved the issues of space neglect and abandonment. Their refreshing and
innovative perspectives on space insertion took into consideration the development’s culturally
specific context, along with its community and social needs.

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