Science of the Secondary – Door
Science of the Secondary is an inquisitive approach towards uncovering implicit conditions that exist in our experience of the everyday. When speaking of the term ‘secondary’, we are referring to conditions and sensations that human beings are not conscious of in their day-to-day interaction with things and the immediate surroundings. Accumulating this rich and boundless field of knowledge, the research hopes to draw upon a renewed sensibility towards living, with much excitement and freshness.
For the first instalment of a building-centric research initiative under the Science of the Secondary series, the common Door, Window and Pipe were chosen as starting points towards an inquiry into the openings of a dwelling. Drawing from the findings of this study, Atelier HOKO developed another mad afternoon at home; an activity piece that contains sixty instructional postcards to be performed by individuals in the comfort of their own home. Using the familiarity of everyday actions and materials to investigate and experience the different openings, this project attempts to draw a closer and more intimate relationship between people and buildings.
About Atelier HOKO
Atelier HOKO (2002) is an independent research lab that focuses on the study of the growing disengagement between people, things and space. The atelier hopes to cultivate in people, an open-ness and ability to un-know, bringing about a heightened curiosity towards all phenomena by taking a fresh look at reality. Founded by Alvin Ho and Clara Koh.
Science of the Secondary – Clock
Science of the Secondary is an inquisitive approach towards uncovering implicit conditions that exist in our experience of the everyday. When speaking of the term ‘secondary’, we are referring to conditions and sensations that human beings are not conscious of in their day-to-day interaction with things and the immediate surroundings. Accumulating this rich and boundless field of knowledge, the research hopes to draw upon a renewed sensibility towards living, with much excitement and freshness.
In general, there are two different kinds of clocks. The first tells time in the form of a common factor that most of us can relate to, a concept of ‘time’ that is shared in order for a social and ordered life to be lived with one another. Then, there is another ‘clock’ that is neither time nor instrument but a continuous stream of rhythm that flows through each and everyone of us. Between these two, which clock have you been using daily?Science of the Secondary: Clock is the third edition in the series of the ongoing independent research programme conceived and developed by Atelier HOKO.
About Atelier HOKO
Atelier HOKO (2002) is an independent research lab that focuses on the study of the growing disengagement between people, things and space. The atelier hopes to cultivate in people, an open-ness and ability to un-know, bringing about a heightened curiosity towards all phenomena by taking a fresh look at reality. Founded by Alvin Ho and Clara Koh.
Science of the Secondary – Cup
Science of the Secondary is an inquisitive approach towards uncovering implicit conditions that exist in our experience of the everyday. When speaking of the term ‘secondary’, we are referring to conditions and sensations that human beings are not conscious of in their day-to-day interaction with things and the immediate surroundings. Accumulating this rich and boundless field of knowledge, the research hopes to draw upon a renewed sensibility towards living, with much excitement and freshness.
…but what does it mean to drink? Do we drink with our skin when the hands are hugging the cup? Are we drinking with our body posture while sipping earl grey in a tearoom? Are the ears drinking as we take each sip of coffee? Can we consider the act of licking one’s lips drinking? Does the nose know that it is drinking as it hovers above the caramelized milk froth sitting atop a very large cup of coffee…?
About Atelier HOKO
Atelier HOKO (2002) is an independent research lab that focuses on the study of the growing disengagement between people, things and space. The atelier hopes to cultivate in people, an open-ness and ability to un-know, bringing about a heightened curiosity towards all phenomena by taking a fresh look at reality. Founded by Alvin Ho and Clara Koh.
Science of the Secondary – Apple
Science of the Secondary is an inquisitive approach towards uncovering implicit conditions that exist in our experience of the everyday. When speaking of the term ‘secondary’, we are referring to conditions and sensations that human beings are not conscious of in their day-to-day interaction with things and the immediate surroundings. Accumulating this rich and boundless field of knowledge, the research hopes to draw upon a renewed sensibility towards living, with much excitement and freshness.
With ‘Apple’ as the subject of the first publication from the research programme Science of the Secondary, Atelier HOKO presents an inquiry into our behaviours and experiences observed through our interaction with the humble fruit. From the very moment we set our eyes on the apples that are displayed in the fruit stall to the strangely familiar memory of an apple within us, this book offers an alternative insight into things that are not yet discovered…
About Atelier HOKO
Atelier HOKO (2002) is an independent research lab that focuses on the study of the growing disengagement between people, things and space. The atelier hopes to cultivate in people, an open-ness and ability to un-know, bringing about a heightened curiosity towards all phenomena by taking a fresh look at reality. Founded by Alvin Ho and Clara Koh.
CONVERGENCE by Wei Leng Tay
Comprising 65 images, Convergence is an intimate look at segments of the Chinese community in Singapore and Malaysia. This book questions and records the changes current generations experience as they grow increasingly distant from their grandparents’ homeland, as attitudes and values shift with each generation. It also looks at how this Chinese community has evolved with characteristics shaped by the co-dependent history, and social landscapes particular to Singapore and Malaysia. Convergence explores the ways of life and relationships of these people and reflects the ideas of race, heritage and language that are ingrained in the community.
Read an interview with Wei Leng Tay and her thought process behind this book here.
About Wei Leng Tay
Wei Leng Tay is an artist working with photography, audio and video that are made into installations and prints. Her process begins with conversations and interactions with people she meets, which inform the images and forms the projects take.
As she works with various parties on her projects, she reflects on the significance of this interaction for both herself and the other party, and how this relationship, however transient and brief, can be articulated in the work. Her works are usually based on how desires, personal relationships and histories are tied to family, society, and the state, and migration. They also reflect on the politics of perception and relation: Who is looking and how is one looking? What is being heard? Why does one, as viewer, maker, participant, feel certain ways about the work? In this way, the works also consider the impossibility of representation and knowing, adding another dimension to the complexities of identity and sense of place or displacement dealt with.
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Before it All Goes by Darren Soh – People’s Park Complex
People’s Park Complex was featured at Darren Soh’s solo exhibition, which was held at Objectifs from August – September 2018. This exhibition presented images of eight iconic sites from Singapore’s early independence years that are now getting demolished and redeveloped. The eight sites are: Pearl Bank Apartments, People’s Park Complex, Golden Mile Complex, Golden Mile Tower, Bedok and Buona Vista Swimming Complexes, Queenstown Cinema, Tanglin Halt Estate and Rochor Centre.
About Darren Soh
Darren Soh’s photographic practice explores architecture, urban landscape and space. An established photographer who is most recognised for his documentation of vernacular architecture, Darren has been placed in several international photography awards over the years, including the Commonwealth Photographic Awards, the Prix de la Photographie, Paris, the International Photography Awards, PDN and ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu. His works have been shown widely, including solo exhibitions at The Esplanade and Objectifs (Singapore Art Week 2015), and internationally at photography festivals like Noorderlicht (The Netherlands) and Obscura (Penang). He has published several monographs including While You Were Sleeping (2004), For My Son (2015) and In the Still of the Night (2016).
Darren was one of the co-founders of Platform.sg, an initiative to showcase photography of Singapore or by Singaporean photographers. As champions of local photography, Platform.sg has gone on to support and publish 22 Singapore photography books and most recently, an exhibition of 34 Singaporean photographers in Istanbul (Apr-May 2018). He continues to advocate for photography as an art form, and contributes actively to the community through frequent public talks and ground up projects that focus on documenting Singapore.
Before it All Goes by Darren Soh – 82 Commonwealth Close
82 Commonwealth Close is featured in Before It All Goes – Architecture from Singapore’s Early Independence Years – a book that was launched at Darren Soh’s solo exhibition, which was held at Objectifs from August – September 2018. This exhibition presented images of eight iconic sites from Singapore’s early independence years that are now getting demolished and redeveloped. The eight sites are: Pearl Bank Apartments, People’s Park Complex, Golden Mile Complex, Golden Mile Tower, Bedok and Buona Vista Swimming Complexes, Queenstown Cinema, Tanglin Halt Estate and Rochor Centre.
About Darren Soh
Darren Soh’s photographic practice explores architecture, urban landscape and space. An established photographer who is most recognised for his documentation of vernacular architecture, Darren has been placed in several international photography awards over the years, including the Commonwealth Photographic Awards, the Prix de la Photographie, Paris, the International Photography Awards, PDN and ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu. His works have been shown widely, including solo exhibitions at The Esplanade and Objectifs (Singapore Art Week 2015), and internationally at photography festivals like Noorderlicht (The Netherlands) and Obscura (Penang). He has published several monographs including While You Were Sleeping (2004), For My Son (2015) and In the Still of the Night (2016).
Darren was one of the co-founders of Platform.sg, an initiative to showcase photography of Singapore or by Singaporean photographers. As champions of local photography, Platform.sg has gone on to support and publish 22 Singapore photography books and most recently, an exhibition of 34 Singaporean photographers in Istanbul (Apr-May 2018). He continues to advocate for photography as an art form, and contributes actively to the community through frequent public talks and ground up projects that focus on documenting Singapore.
DARK CITIES (SOFTCOVER) by Shyue Woon
DARK CITIES Trilogy (DCT), inaugural winner of the FIRST DRAFT Award by THEBOOKSHOW, is a series of three books of photographs re-imagining fringe spaces in the metropoles of Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul. CARPARK, first in the series, investigates the nocturnal meanderings of a dark multi-storey carpark in Singapore. CAPSULE, the second book, revisits a futuristic tower in Ginza built in the 1970s, through the imagined eyes and mind of its architect. The third book EULJIRO is a lost and found diary of a fading iconic Seoul district, once a symbol of the country’s modernisation.
DCT is the for finalist for SIPF (Singapore International Photography Festival) Photobook Open call 2018, finalist for Encontros de Imagem Open Call, Portugal 2018 and finalist for IPA Award for Photobook 2018.
DCT was previously exhibited at First Draft @Objectifs 2017, Tokyo Art Book Fair 2017, Dali Photography Exhibition 2017, New Margin @DECK Singapore 2018, Basel Art Book Fair 2018, Shanghai Art Book Fair 2018, Singapore Art Book fair 2018, Penang Obscura Photography Festival 2018, Singapore International Photo Festival 2018 and Unseen Amsterdam 2018.
More information about the book may be found here.
About Shyue Woon
Shyue Woon, trained as an Architect, uses photography as a tool to explore subtext in the built environment. In his daily practice as an architect, he turns aspirations and dreams into constructible reality. At night, he reverses the process – deconstructing reality and spaces into fiction and figments of imagination.
Shyue Woon’s debut photobook Dark Cities won the inaugural First Draft Award by THEBOOKSHOW. Woon was also selected as an artist in Mt Rokko International Photography Festival Emerging Photographers Showcase 2016 and his work has been exhibited in Turkey, Japan, Ukraine, Australia, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. His works were also selected for +50, a collective for Singapore’s Photographers; and “Thank you, Mr Lee” (2015), a book tribute to late LKY.
WOMEN IN FILM 2018: A BETTER MAN
Women in Film 2018: Collective Power came to a close on Sat 13 Oct with the screening of A Better Man by Canadian filmmakers Attiya Khan and Lawrence Jackman. This documentary sees …
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WOMEN IN FILM 2018: AVA
Women in Film 2018: Collective Power continued with yet another rainy night and yet another sold-out screening: Ava, by Iranian-Canadian director Sadaf Foroughi, is a coming-of-age story depicting the titular protagonist’s …
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