Journal & Book Publications

This chapter refers on early colonial religious drama in Mexico and on the Shi’ite ritual performances of Ta’ziyeh in order to highlight the extent to which theatrical characterisations and representations of the end of times, its agents, the afterlife, and the powers that control them may get weaponised on the grounds of creating a sense of apocalyptic agency. That agency is likely to be sustained by a pretence of political and religious power. As such, it is never quite pure – never absolute. Who are the self-proclaimed owners of the end of times and of the final judgement? How are those ends being enacted and contested (or not) in theatre and performance?    

Citation:
Cervera, Felipe. “Theatre and Eschatological Politics.” The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics, edited by Peter Eckersall and Helena Greha, Routledge, 2019, pp. 295-298.

When colouring each isolated object without being able to envisage the overall design, students tend to let the software dictate the visual style of their work. Taking inspiration from Woon Lam Ng’s (2016) painting approach, this research proposes that lighting precedes texturing. Students will firstly place objects in the scene and consider compositional elements such as tone and shape in relation to the whole before colouring them. The approach proposed in this paper aims to emphasize the overall picture-plane design so as to encourage conscious experimentation with visual style. 17 students from the final year BA(Hons) Animation Art programme were mentored with the proposed approach over 8 weeks. Still images from the students’ work before and after intervention were qualitatively assessed by different assessors based on a set of criteria. Further data collected from a student questionnaire and a research observation journal helped to verify the student’s intent to explore style. They also revealed challenges of the revised approach – productive efficiency and time constraints. The report concludes with possible areas of improvement to the research method and areas for future research.    

Citation:
Ang, Qing Sheng. “A painting-inspired approach to develop exploration in 3D animation visual style.” Animation Studies, vol. 14, 2019.

This paper explores how transculturation may shape the future of Singapore animated cinema by reflecting upon the creative voices of local animation filmmakers through a case study of seven animated shorts – Curry Fish Head (2013), 1997 (2014), Go Local (2014), The Violin (2015), Pioneers of the Future (2015), The Tiger of 142B (2015) and Lak Boh Ki (2016). The films reveal the effects of transculturation in multicultural Singapore from the perspective of animation filmmakers. Manifestation of Singapore culture is identified by representations of racial diversity; national personification such as the Merlion icon; local scenes such as the Housing Development Board (HDB) apartments; use of Singlish language; historical moments like the separation of Singapore and Malaysia; landmarks like the Marina Bay Sands; local delicacies such as fish head curry; nostalgia in the form of childhood memories in public schools. The emergence of these films can be attributed to both social engineering by the incumbent government through national campaigns as well as the erosion of the hyphenated identity through ground-up initiatives by citizens. The paper concludes that transculturation has led to a possible new wave of animated cinema from Singapore that will further contribute to the formation of a shared identity.

Citation:
Ang, Qing Sheng. “The Introspective Merlion: Transculturalism in Singaporean Animation.” Animation Studies, vol. 14, 2019.

It proposes a taxonomy of the five most impactful types of effect that theatre directors elicit and employ, from ‘the synesthetic pleasure principle’ and explorations of ‘ghosts and doubles’ to ‘metamorphosing time and space’.

Citation
Dixon, Steve. “How Does Theatre Think Through Incorporating Media.” Thinking Through Theatre and Performances, edited by Maaike Bleeker, Adrian Kear, Joe Kelleher, and Heike Roms, 1st ed. Bloomsbury, 2019, pp. 130-144.

This practice-based research attempts to outline a practical framework of cultural specifics capable of producing an animated film that is identifiably ‘Singaporean’ to a global audience. Resistance against the Marcusian One-Dimensional Man theory, the premise of Kenneth Paul Tan’s Cinema and Television in Singapore in 2008, will be the basis of this research to understand the emergence of contemporary Singaporean films. Alfian bin Sa’at’s definition of the ‘heartlander’, a recurring and highly relatable element in Singaporean cinema largely due to the geographical statistic of the population percentage living in Singaporean public housing (referred to as HDB), provides the social semiotics needed by the research to understand Singapore culture. Films such as Ilo Ilo by Anthony Chen and Sandcastle by Boo Junfeng will be analysed according to five indicators – setting, characters, mise en scène, language and premise – as they manifest Singaporean traits in their attempts to integrate local culture. The same indicators are used to analyse films such as ‘Tatsumi’ by Eric Khoo so as to locate cultural deficiency within these local animated features. ‘Flats’ by Ervin Han and similar animated shorts are subsequently examined as examples of attempts at infusing local culture into an animated production. The practical result of the research is presented as a production journal of an animated short explicating the socio-political aspects of local identity.

Citation:
Ang, Qing Sheng. ''Infusing local culture in Singaporean animation: Developing a framework of cultural specifics from a study of contemporary cinema in Singapore.'' Animation Practice, Process & Production, vol. 7, no. 1, 2018, pp. 113-137, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/ap3.7.1.113_1.

Acknowledgement of, respective for, and an embracing of culture, cultural traditions, and practices that are culturally relevant are some of the fundamentals at the core of this art therapy membership organization. A critical and multipronged relationship has been established among ANZACATA, Singapore, and the MA Art therapy training program at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. This article presents a perspective on the development of art therapy in Southeast Asia with consideration to the significance of East/West influences, relations, and training. The aim is to provide a reflective account of the unique East/West nature and role of ANZACATA and on art therapy in Singapore through my role as program leader of the first and only postgraduate psychodynamic art psychotherapy training in Southeast Asia. This perspective is further informed through substantial experience as a credentialed art therapist bridging Eastern and Western countries, cultures, clinical practices, and professional art(s) therapy organizations. This article was written and articulated through an expatriate’s informed lens of being immersed in the local culture over an extended period. The discourse highlights the significance of international connections while asserting Southeast Asian relevance and context as the discipline of art therapy matures in this region.

Citation:
Lay, Ronald P.M.H.. ''East/West nature of ANZACATA: A perspective on the significance of international connections while asserting Southeast Asian relevance and context in practice and in postgraduate art therapy training.'' CAET: Creative Arts in Education and Therapy: Eastern and Western Perspectives, vol. 4, no. 2, 2018, pp. 88-97, doi: https://doi.org/10.15212/CAET/2018/4/12.

Design establishes itself as a social process when situated within real-world contexts, thereby repositioning collectivity as an inevitable condition of design research and practice. This paper introduces the learning and working dynamics of design research students engaged in self-directed studies to examine how individual practises subsequently influence collective references in forming thematic parallels. Examples of student research are used to illustrate how divergent explorations of design issues converge to produce less insular approaches towards a collective body of knowledge. This paper discusses how individual perspectives contribute to unanticipated collectivity, communicating the value of facilitating a shared learning curriculum for design research and practise.

Citation:
Chon, Harah, and Nur Hidayah Abu Bakar. ''Collective Individualism in Design.'' Proceedings of Cumulus - To get there: Designing togethere, Conférence des Écoles Supérieures d'Arts Appliqués de Paris 04/2018, edited by Claire Brunet and Luisa Collina, Cumulus, 2018, pp. 734-747, ISBN / ISSN: 978-2-9565440-0-5.

Conventionally, creative media courses adopt the studio-based learning, and with this unique dynamic teaching approach, students are required to have face-to-face tutorial sessions with their tutors on a regular basis, as well as participate in group projects and produce creative artefacts of industry standard quality. In this paper, we investigate the critical motivators for creative media students and identify those factors throughout the study. The study aims to examine how crucial and influential the autonomy, peer relationship and the future career opportunities for students’ motivation. Research includes a survey with questions based on a conceptual framework adopted from self-determination theory. The results suggest that autonomy, peer relationships and the opportunity for future careers are the primary motivators for students in the programme. The implications of the findings are discussed, and recommendations are provided to faculty members in the creative programmes.

Citation:
Shaw, Christopher, and Jae-Eun Oh. ''Engaging Creative Media Students' Motivation: The Influence of Autonomy, Peer Relationships, and Opportunities in the Industry.'' World Journal of Education, vol. 8, no. 6, 2018, pp. 1-10, doi: https://doi.org/10.5430/wje.v8n6p1.