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.

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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.

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.

For four hours each day, visitors enter this installation of transition and immerse in the soundscape it creates.

This documentation video contains highlights from the installation set against a soundtrack created by Darren.

This extended version contains more footage from the installation and the unadulterated sounds of ice melting.

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.

Access the full suite of materials about #3.2 For The Time Being here.

The Vault: #3 three revisits Quah Sy Ren’s Invisibility through the eyes of theatre design collective INDEX. We asked the three INDEX designers to reflect on the conceptualisation and development of their works in this design-centred series. A short summary video of the respective installation accompanies each designers’ reflections.
More on The Vault: #3 three series here.

| Reflections on #3.1 In/Visibility | Reflections on #3.2 For the Time Being | Reflections on #3.3 scale 1.333 333.333… |

May 21 – 23, 2015
THE VAULT: #3.1 IN/VISIBILITY
By Lim Woan Wen

July 22 – 24, 2015
THE VAULT: #3.2 FOR THE TIME BEING
By Darren Ng

September 30 – October 3, 2015
THE VAULT: #3.3 scale 1:333 333.333…
By Lim Wei Ling

If you attended any of The Vault: #3 three installations and would like to share your thoughts and/or personal reflections with us, please send us an email at info@centre42.sg. We would love to hear from you!

In the translation to English, some meaning from the original Chinese text is inevitably lost, or becomes invisible to English readers.

For example, when A quotes from ancient Chinese text, the English translation is unable to emulate its rhythm and tone, and even loses some information.

Note that the title of the book is not given an English equivalent. Also, perhaps at the expense of grammar, the chanting quality of Zheng’s words does not make the transition across languages.

The same loss can be seen in the translation of Singaporean Chinese as well. The kind of Chinese spoken by Singaporeans in the play is less formal and more slangy, often interspersed with English and Singlish terms. For example:

The English translation is formal and grammatically correct, in sharp contrast to the highly colloquial, patchwork quality of the Chinese source text.

Some meaning is invariably lost when translating from one language to another. But perhaps even more is lost when a language is spoken by fewer and fewer people. In Invisibility, the character ‘A’ appears to have received a formal Chinese education because he often refers to ancient Chinese history and Chinese historical texts. He is also obsessed with becoming invisible.

Faced with the growing power of English, what can a Mandarin-speaking Singaporean do? In Quah Sy Ren’s “Invisibility”, we watch a well-educated Mandarin speaker answer this question by trying to disappear.
Source: Revealing the invisible: Heterolingualism in three generations of Singaporean playwrights by James St. André)

A’s quest to seek out invisibility through the wisdom of an ancient Chinese master has already set him apart from the other characters in the play. The character ‘A’ alludes to how a Chinese speaker can become invisible in an English-dominated landscape.

According to a 2010 census reported that about 1 in 3 Chinese residents speak English most frequently at home – this is a marked increase from the year 1990, when just 1 in 5 Chinese residents spoke English most frequently at home. In comparison, the proportion of Chinese residents who spoke Mandarin most frequently at home remained relatively consistent at around 46% between 2000 and 2010.

The meteoric rise of the English language set off fears of cultural erosion among the Chinese populace. The Speak Mandarin Campaign, originally conceived in the 1980s to encourage the adoption of Mandarin as a common mother tongue over other Chinese dialects, had to reset its sights since the 1990s on younger Chinese Singaporeans who were speaking English far more than Mandarin or any other Chinese dialects.

Values and language cannot be easily separated. They are intrinsically linked to each other. Values get into our minds and hearts through folklore. For the Chinese these stories and beliefs are preserved in their literature or passed on by word of mouth… A Chinese Singaporean who does not know Chinese – either Mandarin or dialect – runs the risk of losing the collective wisdom of the Chinese civilization.
Source: Mr. Goh Chok Tong’s speech at the 1991 Speak Mandarin Campaign launch

However, the real losers of the language arms race in Singapore appears to be the Chinese dialects. The proportion of Chinese residents who speak Chinese dialects most frequently at home has fallen from about 50% in 1990 to less than 20% in 2010. Chinese dialects are certainly becoming an invisible language in Singapore.

What language do you use to communicate with your family, friends, or colleagues?

By Daniel Teo
Published on 21 July 2015

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.

Find out more about The Vault programme here.

Scene 1 opens with the characters B, C and D debating the nature of A’s existence. A’s name is just ‘A’ – he does not have a ‘proper’ name, which puzzles the characters. He also does not have a job.

But A still exists – there has to be something else to A’s existence other than a name and a job.

At the heart of A’s existence is some form of ‘A-ness’ which makes A, ‘A’. In the play, A’s ‘A-ness’ is defined by his pursuit of invisibility. And therein lies one of the big questions Invisibility asks: If you’re invisible, do you exist?

If your answer is no…

…then your existence is based on other people’s perception of you. You exist because others acknowledge your being.

In this frame of mind, it becomes important how people see us. Think of the clothes you choose to wear – what sort of image are you projecting to others? What are you without your clothes? (Other than naked, of course.)

People can also touch you. Hear you. Smell you. Maybe even taste you (!). Your existence is based on how others sense you.

But can senses be trusted?

• Have your eyes ever been fooled? Here’s a list of 25 optical illusions.
• Think what you hear in the movies sounds the same in real life? Watch some foley (sound effect) artists at work.
• Smell something that was really something else? In the perfume industry, a bean can smell like hay.
• Here’s how to trick your sense of touch.
• Synthetic food flavourings can make you taste like you’re eating the real thing. Think you’re tasting strawberries?

And if senses are not completely reliable, how can we be absolutely sure of our existence? Read on…

If your answer is yes…

…you think that you exist, and even if no one else does, you still know that you do.

In this frame of mind, your existence is defined by your thoughts, independent of what anyone else perceives of you.

The concept of a thinking existence was theorised by 17^th-century philosopher Renee Descartes. It is encapsulated in his famous statement cogito ergo sum: I think therefore I am. To Descartes, doubting your existence is actually proof that you exist because you thought it.

A person’s thoughts thus become the defining characteristic of one’s existence, independent of sensory perception. In this way, you can be invisible, but still exist.

No character embodies the concept of an invisible existence better than the invisible Hermit Master whom A aspires to.

The Hermit Master exists because he thinks – that is all. There is no need for him to be seen or heard by others.

How do you know you exist? What clues do you rely on to inform you of your existence?

By Daniel Teo
Published on 16 July 2015

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.

Find out more about The Vault programme here.

“Do what you can, what you love and what you believe in. Don’t do it otherwise.”

– Darren Ng on receiving the Young Artist Award in 2012

Sound artist Darren Ng’s repertoire is hugely diverse. From solo piano pieces to experimental works which fuse sounds from wildly different sources, Darren’s unique compositions are always intriguing, sensitive and highly emotive.

In a prolific career spanning 16 years, Darren has sound-designed and composed music for over 150 productions including stage, dance, film, installations and exhibitions. Since 2004, he has been Associate Sound Artist and Music Composer for The Finger Players, and also works independently and as part of the light-sound-spatial design trio INDEX.

Darren is also an acoustic ambient music composer, recording music under the stage name “sonicbrat” with independent studio Kitchen. Label. He has released more than 10 albums and has performed in numerous prestigious international music and arts festivals across Europe and Asia such as Wiener Feswochen (Vienna, Austria) and SONAR (Barcelona, Spain), to name a few. He was also selected to participate in the Redbull Music Academy in 2008 and has been an alumni since.

Darren is a multiple winner and nominee of the Straits Times Life! Theatre Award for Best Sound, and also a recipient of the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award for Music and Multidisciplinary Practice in 2012. He was also named JUICE Magazine’s Best Laptop Artist twice.

Bitesize interview with Centre 42 (20 July 2015)

Darren shares what sound means to him and the process of working on his latest work with the Centre The Vault: #3.2 For The Time Being.

[See image gallery at centre42.sg]

Selected works

• View the trailer of The Book of Living and Dying (2013), produced by The Finger Players. Darren was sound designer and music composer for the production and played live for the performance. An extract of the theme song is featured in this trailer; you can listen to it in full here.

•  “Örkin hans Nóa” (“Noah’s Ark”), another of Darren’s pieces for The Book Of Living and Dying.

• Piano theme sketch composed for Everything But The Brain (2013) by Sightlines Productions.

• Selections from Darren’s album Stranger to My Room (2013) as sonicbrat:
  Caesura
  Stranger To My Room
  Temporal [Raw Piano Recording]Listen to more of Darren’s work via his SoundCloud page.

“I like listening to a space, as it defines and characterises our reality. There is a déjà vu quality to sounds as they weave in between the conscious and the subconscious. […] To me, sound is the materialization of negative space, which is the space we are listening to, divided as such.”
(Source: SOUND – Latitudes and Attitudes, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, 2014)

A sample of recent projects

For a complete list of Darren’s work, please check out his website.

By Daniel Teo
Published on 15 Jul 2015

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.

Find out more about The Vault programme here.