THE ROOM THAT GREW BUOYANT, LITTLE BY LITTLE | by INDEX

“A poor secret house, as in an old print, that only lives in me, where sometimes I return to sit down and forget the gray day and the rain.” – 1913, André Lafon

In the blue house that lives within, there is a room outside. Inside this room, there is a tree that the room enjoys listening to. Above this tree, there is a chair that rocks in tune with the tree. Under this chair, there is a table that creaks in silence as the chair sings. Within this table, there is a forest that the table was made of. In the middle of this forest, there is a fan that keeps the forest cool. Next to the fan, there is a door that  opens when the fan stops spinning. Beyond the door, there is an ocean in which a blue house lives – the blue house with the room outside and the tree and chair and table and forest and fan and door and ocean. And when the stars align perfectly, the universe shall fold infinitely into the heart of this room as the windows crack and lift the room out of its solidity, dissolving the remnants of its geography of being.

The Room that Grew Buoyant, Little by Little marks INDEX’s next foray into bridging theatre and installation. Developed in residence at Centre 42, this site-specific installation seeks to contemplate the room as a medium to frame the innate narratives of our world, blur the line of dualities, and open up a free space where the visitor is invited to spend time with/in. This site-specific work is generated through observations of the environment, including the mundane and minute. It explore the concept of contrast as they attempt to bring the indoors outdoors and vice versa.

Dubbed as the collective’s “happy project”, the collective’s key mode of working this time is happiness. While the project was conceptualised in 2017, and inspirations about the space collected from January to March 2018, the physical development of the work manifested only in the week before it opened to the public in March 2018. In contrast to the usual need for a predetermined plan or product before the ‘theatre bump-in due date’, the collective has had the freedom to grow, tweak, refine their installation even as it was opened to visitors. The blue house – the room – literally grew richer, day by day.

INDEX is a design collective winged under The Finger Players, comprising 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.

Lim Wei Ling | 林玮翎
Architecture trained Wei Ling enjoys manifesting her passion for architecture beyond buildings, believing that the basis of design thoughts is not bounded by genre. Her works stretch across a spectrum of manifestations and were seen in major festivals both in Singapore and overseas. She is also a senior lecturer at the School of Design, Nanyang Polytechnic. She is a graduate of the National University of Singapore in Architecture and subsequently received Masters of Arts in Design Futures with Distinction from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her awards include the President’s Design Award 2007, Design of the Year.

林玮翎，创作动机来自于从复杂的日常生活中寻找简单的生存之道。受过建筑计的专业训练，她认为建筑/设计的概念不应受限于任类别，而是一种观念和生活态度。她的创作作品不拘形式，横跨多个领域，参加过本地与国际各大艺术节 。玮翎毕业于新加坡国立大学建筑系，后于伦敦大学金匠学院获得一等文学硕士学位，现任教于南洋理工学院设计系 。作品《0501》于2007年获得新加坡“总统设计奖”之年度设计奖。

Lim Woan Wen | 林菀雯
A graduate from the National University of Singapore’s Theatre Studies programme, Woan Wen received the inaugural National Arts Council Arts Professional Scholarship in 2001 and trained at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in stage lighting design. She has won multiple Best Lighting Design awards at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards and was conferred the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council in 2011. Woan Wen divides her time between freelancing, working with The Finger Players as their associate lighting designer, and making work as one-third of the design collective INDEX.

菀雯毕业自新加坡国立大学，主修戏剧，2001年获国家艺术理事会颁发奖学金，前往香港演艺学院进修舞台灯光设计。她目前为十指帮的附属灯光设计，也是创作组合［什只］的创团成员之一，曾多次夺得“《海峡时报》生活！戏剧奖”最佳灯光设计，并于2011年获得由国家艺术理事会颁发的年度青年艺术家奖。

Darren Ng | 黄泽晖
For the past two decades, Darren has sound designed and composed music for over 250 arts productions, and has received multiple Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards for Best Sound. As a music composer, he is signed to record label Kitchen. Label, going by the pseudonym – sonicbrat, and was invited to perform solo in numerous prestigious international music and arts festivals across Europe and Asia. He has been Associate Sound Artist and Music Composer for The Finger Players since 2004 and is a cofounder of the design collective INDEX. He was conferred the Young Artist Award (music; multi-disciplinary practice) in 2012 by the National Arts Council.

泽晖毕业自新加坡国立大学，主修哲学与戏剧。他活跃于本地剧场与国际实验音乐及声音艺术界已有20年，至今参与超过250个舞台剧和艺术演出的音响设计及音乐创作。他也是知名Kitchen. Label 的签属艺人(sonicbrat) ，曾受邀到欧洲和亚洲多个著名音乐节及艺术节演出或呈献声音艺术装置。他目前是十指帮附属声音艺术设计及音乐创作人，也是设计组合［什只］的创办人之一。他曾多次提名与夺得“《海峡时报》生活!戏剧奖”最佳音效设计，并于2012年获得由国家艺术理事会颁发的年度青年艺术家奖。