In response to Quah Sy Ren’s “Invisibility”, sound artist Darren Ng presents a thought-provoking aural experience of melting ice. In an installation piece augmenting the sound of ice as it transitions between states, the work highlights the restlessness of the ephemeral and liminal state of “now” and the meaninglessness and futility of living in the present. This is a summary video featuring highlights from the installation.
It takes an approximate 80 milliseconds for our brain to process all the relevant sensory input from our perceptions, before it experiences the “now”. As such, we are constantly living in the past, an 80 milliseconds of liminal disjuncture.
Set as a quiet transitional experience, the sound installation highlights the restlessness of this ephemeral and liminal state of “now”; and the meaninglessness and futility of living in the present. For The Time Being hopes to accentuate the dichotomy of being and nothingness by augmenting the sound of ice melting as a way to alienate and/or heighten meanings from our perceptions.
Visitors will engage in this discreet and metaphysical conversation brought about by chance, as a matter transits from one state to the other in time and space.
In this series of three installations, the focus is brought to a theatre designer’s response to text. In the absence of a prescribed directorial vision, design collective INDEX connects directly with the play, interprets its narrative and re-imagines it using their specialized language of design.
Read more about the first of this series, #3.1 In/Visibility by lighting designer Lim Woan Wen, here.
Read more about the third of this series, #3.3 scale 1:333333.333… by spatial designer Lim Weiling, here.
REGISTRATION
22 – 25 July 2015
5.00pm – 9.00pm (Wed – Fri)
3.00pm – 7.00pm (Sat)
*last admission 20min before closing time
@ Centre 42 Black Box
Limited capacity for each show | Admission is free.
About the Playwright
“Invisibility” was written by Quah Sy Ren and was first staged (in Mandarin) by The Necessary Stage in 1996. The mandarin play was translated into English by Sim Pern Yiau. A browsing copy of the published play is available in Centre 42’s Book Den. View it here.
Playwright Quah Sy Ren is an associate professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Chinese division at Nanyang Technical University. His main research interests are in Chinese Literature and the history of Singapore Theatre. Quah also sits on the board of directors for Practice Performing Arts Centre and The Finger Players. In addition to Invisibility (1996), Quah has also authored other plays as well as written and edited several books.
INDEX
INDEX is a design collective winged under The Finger Players, comprising of spatial designer Lim Wei Ling, lighting designer Lim Woan Wen and sound artist/music composer Darren Ng. Finding common grounds in quiet aesthetics and subtractive work ethos, the collective focuses on design-centric installations and performances, using space, light and sound to weave meanings and narratives. While the three designers have been working together for a substantial number of years, the collective was kick-started in May 2013 with the performance installation IN:dex, presented under The Studio’s R.A.W series at the Esplanade Theatre Studio.
As a collective that focuses on design-centric installations and performances, INDEX is primarily interested in exploring the possibilities and potential of creating narratives using the elements of space, light and sound. In their third collaboration The Vault: #3 three, the three artists seek to experiment and further expand their vocabulary through developing a series of three entirely separate showcases based on one chosen script.
By Darren Ng
During the months of conceptualising “For the Time Being”, I had various ideas in response to the script “Invisibility” by Dr. Quah Sy Ren. The filtering process, which ultimately ended up with the use of ice, was one that came about rather naturally – I wanted something that was seemingly simple (in presentation) while staying true to the responses I had for the script (themes), yet allowing room for the visitors to have their own responses and interpretations.
Some of the difficulties I faced were during the research and development process, when a lot of experiments were with the ice and its container (vessel). I initially wanted to use glass containers, which made the ice more visible and aesthetically more pleasing. However, under immense pressure from the contractions and expansions of the freezing process, various attempts with different glass containers resulted either in cracked containers or shattering glass upon freezing.
This was disheartening in the earlier process and I went on to plastic containers. Much to my dismay, they too cracked during the freezing process. I finally found the right container with the appropriate softness necessary to withhold the pressure, as seen in the installation. They were not perfect but they were the right ones.
This, in retrospect, is interesting as the idea of a vessel, or selecting the right vessel, does seem like a necessary process or ritual, to house the transition of a matter. We have expectations of ourselves, our body being the vessel, housing our transitions. Often, it is not what is good or perfect, but what is necessary and appropriate, giving the right conditions in facilitating the transition.
Not having control over the production of sounds in this installation was an interesting experience for me. I had no way of ensuring the sounds I heard during my research period would be reproduced faithfully again during the installation. Likewise, I had no way of reproducing the same sound each day during the sound installation period, due to various factors that affected the freezing and melting of ice. I became a participant as well, a keen observer, as I quietly took a seat on the receiving end – helpless and curious, I could only wait in anticipation.
“I became a participant as well, a keen observer, as I quietly took a seat on the receiving end – helpless and curious, I could only wait in anticipation.”
This in turn gave me an insight into “Invisibility” again as I was able to react, respond and read more into the piece (now with visitors in the picture as part of the composite) and making new links to the script, characters and themes. It was an unexpected dialogue, and it taught me more things than I had first assumed.
Speaking of dialogue, one of my greatest rewards was to be able to hear the different responses from visitors and the personal and beautiful discourses during many private feedback sessions I had with them. They had their own take on the notion of invisibility, of being, of nothingness, on the familiar, the unfamiliar and the in-between. Some concocted images or physicalised the sounds; some pegged the sounds and associated them with familiar sounds they were reminded of. They shared with me stories, emotions, reasoning and their intellectual readings. They questioned me, offered alternatives and challenged the concept and/or script further and extended it to life.
All these informed me more about the piece and their possible readings and taught me more about living and transiting. I had intended for this to happen, but the extent of it way surpassed my expectations. For that, I am most grateful.
I can create a piece, whereby I am the dictator of meanings, or I can just let the piece take its own course and narratives, so that it becomes something bigger than one person. I chose the latter and it had been most rewarding.
Reading Material
#1: THE PLAYWRIGHT & THE PLAY
#2: PAST STAGINGS & RESPONSES
#3: INVISIBILITY & THE HERMIT LIFE
#4: INVISIBILITY & THE CONCEPT OF LIMINALITY
#5: INVISIBILITY & THE CONCEPT OF EXISTENCE
#6: INVISIBILITY & LANGUAGE
#7: THE ARTIST: LIM WOAN WEN
#8: THE ARTIST: DARREN NG
Programme Handout
#3.2 For The Time Being (Summary)
In response to Quah Sy Ren’s “Invisibility”, sound artist Darren Ng presents a thought-provoking aural experience of melting ice. In an installation piece augmenting the sound of ice as it transitions between states, the work highlights the restlessness of the ephemeral and liminal state of “now” and the meaninglessness and futility of living in the present. This is a summary video featuring highlights from the installation.
#3.2 For The Time Being (Extended)
Sound artist Darren Ng presents a thought-provoking aural experience of melting ice. In an installation piece augmenting the sound of ice as it transitions between states, the work highlights the restlessness of the ephemeral and liminal state of “now” and the meaninglessness and futility of living in the present.
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The Vault: #3 three revisits Invisibility, refreshes and retells the stories in them through the eyes of theatre design collective INDEX. #3.2 For The Time Being by sound artist Darren Ng is the second of three installations.
