tara tan

CLOUD – June 22 at Esplanade Theatre Studio

tara — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:47:30 +0000

A mixed media performance installation on memory and the city, CLOUD delves into the ways we remember, and what we lose in the ways we forget. Using multi-channel video screens, live performance, evocative soundscapes and a real-time twitter feed, CLOUD is the latest work from Studio Now & Then, the Singapore creative collective behind Songbird (2012), which premiered at the Singapore Arts Festival last year. CLOUD is presented as a work-in-progress as part of Esplanade RAW series, and is an initiative under the National Arts Council’s Arts Creation Fund.

Studio Now & Then will present CLOUD at Festival Tokyo in December 2013.

CLOUD
Venue: Esplanade Theatre Studio
Date: June 22 2013 @ 3pm & 8pm
Price: Free
Book your seat at raw@esplanade.com.

London Grammar is Future Perfect

tara — Wed, 29 May 2013 00:32:37 +0000

Current earworm: London Grammar, an incredible British trio who met at Nottingham University. They sound like a smooth blend of the XX, Adele, with a splash of Ellie Goulding.

A Conversation with teamLab Inc (Japan)

tara — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:35:36 +0000

Meet one of the hotted creative agencies to come out of Tokyo today – teamLab Inc.

JapanGSD is proud to host teamLab Inc (Japan), an interactive design firm from Tokyo. Led by CEO Toshiyuki Inoko, the collective is made up of creative coders, UX designers, architects, graphic designers, engineers and artists.

From mobile applications to interactive installations, the dynamic group of creatives have created works for the Venice Biennale, Japan Media Arts Festival, Google, Tokyo Designers Week. Inoko is currently serving as the Creative Industry Expert for “Cool Japan”.

Check out some of their work here: http://www.team-lab.net/latest/exhibitionlist.

A quirky interview with Inoko in Time Out Tokyo: http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2351/The-Hot-Seat-Toshiyuki-Inoko

See you there!

Dubai Dreams

tara — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:33:22 +0000

Dubai glistens. Impossibly-shiny glass windows gleam across blocks of new high-rises and 350,000 sqm shopping malls. Sprawling man-made lakes glitter in the brilliant sunlight. A 40-minute drive from downtown takes you to a surreal dreamscape filled with golden sand, where friendly camels trot and tourist-hungry campsites stage belly dances by twilight. And of course, the heat. The intense, body-baking heat that rises out of the sand that goes everywhere. Your shoes, your room, the pockets of your jeans. Thanks to some Singaporean friends living there, I think I got to see much of new and old Dubai. We gorged on freshly-caught fish in a no-menu eatery by the beach, and sipped Elderflower Fizz while watching gallons of water soar and cascade in the world’s largest fountain. Dubai is a strange place – sparse with people and filled with multi-billion dollar dreams. Drive through the city (it’s laid out in one long line), and you’ll find towering, half-finished buildings left standing as if discarded by a giant child. Nobody walks anywhere because of the heat, so the city in the middle of the afternoon resembles a dusty ghost town. The countless malls are laden with brands from everywhere in the world – burgers from South Africa, Lebanese sharwarma wraps, Italian bags of the softest leather, bakeries from Australia. Stay too long in Dubai – and you’ll feel like you’re wandering about in a hazy dream. Nothing seems quite real. And perhaps, nothing really is.

Songbird Journey

tara — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 05:28:53 +0000

Alright, alright – we come clean: there were no live actors in Songbird.

But as the following photos show, this show demands live presence (yours, specifically) for it to work. We designed it so it was to be experienced. Not seen from an armchair, not browsed on a bus. You needed to walk, touch, feel, move, smell, listen in the spaces we created – both physical and digital.

These photos hardly do the journey justice – but ah heck, here they are for posterity’s sake. If you fancy listening to the soundtrack that would have accompanied the experience, head over here.

Muji Sumitai

tara — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 06:51:24 +0000

Live in a Muji house prototype for two years? Yes, please. A simple but gorgeous little “wooden house” in the charming Mitaka neighbourhood – a bit of a trek from Central Tokyo, but you’d be near the Studio Ghibli museum – and did we mention it’s rent-free? Woot. You need to be able to communicate in Japanese though, and entertain site visits every month. Check out their website for a virtual walk-through, and their app does some cool AR stuff too. I’ve been going crazy apartment-hunting for the move to Boston, and man, housing can be such a pain. If Muji can pull off affordable, functional, and aesthetically clean housing in the near future – that’d be a dream come true.

Songbird.

tara — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:06:04 +0000

I can’t quite believe Songbirdis premiering in less than ten days. It’s been a whirlwind journey, for sure. The idea took root over a year ago, sometime last May – and it’s quite crazy that the wisp of a dream is now something I can (well, somewhat physically) hold and definitely touch today. All thanks to a great team and a whole bunch of people working crazy hours behind the scenes to bring you a full app-in-a-show-in-an-app. (Shout out to our developers Tinkertanker – they’re awesome)

If you’re keen in trying out new ways of telling a story, or interested in film, music, technology – you should download the app and go for the walk. We promise it will be pleasant, and with some nice surprises along the way. Admission is free, reservations are essential. Book here or through the Songbird app. Search for “Songbird Story” in the iTunes app store, and you’ll see Studio Now & Then‘s very first app. My heart does a little leap every time I see it on the store. I can’t quite believe it’s ours – and it’s out there.

So there you go – May 24 to 27 at the Singapore Arts Festival. We’ve been lucky enough to get some press attention here and here, if you’d like to read more about the show. We hope to see you there.

Songbird in Life!, The Straits Times!

tara — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:04:40 +0000

Thanks Adeline, and Life!, The Straits Times!

Songbird in Time Out Singapore!

tara — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:59:46 +0000

Thanks Jo, and the TimeOut Singapore team! Read it here.

Moment & Eternity

tara — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:07:25 +0000

This journal has been so ridiculously quiet over the month of April – as Eliot calls it, the cruelest month – but I have a whole slew of stuff to share. But first, to atone for the absence, an art exhibition by Japanese printmaker Shinji Ohmaki called Moment and Eternity. The delicate work, made up of hundreds of small, precious prints, pretty much disappeared 15 minutes after its launch at Hermes, Liat Towers. The ephemeral makes us treasure the moment so much more; its absence strengthens it as a memory for eternity.