More from Singapore: SEGD’s Singapore Chapter presents “Crafting Experiences”
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This past May, SEGD interviewed Yann Follain, Managing Director & Head of Design at WY-TO, an experiential design firm based in both Singapore and Paris. In his interview, Yann spoke about Singapore’s active design community and the quarterly series of talks sponsored by SEGD’s Singapore Chapter. The next talk,“Crafting Experiences,” will look at how Southeast Asian designers are combining physical and digital design elements, specifically in exhibition design.
Keeping people safe and healthy during the worldwide pandemic continues to be a major challenge for governments, healthcare providers and public institutions. And although social distancing has proven to be one of the most effective ways of slowing down the transmission of the virus, it has also been detrimental to many museums and arts organizations which rely on visitors to stay active and engaged, both financially and creatively.
Exhibition designers are helping institutions face these challenges by creating new ways to combine the physical and the digital, transforming how museums and arts organizations communicate content to their visitors.
Writing about this combination, SEGD’s Singapore Chapter states that “The term ‘phygital’ in design has emerged as a word to describe this hybrid state. Particularly in exhibition design, which has its roots in the physical world. It is enabling designers to create unique and memorable experiences that are augmented and informed by digital applications and methodology.”
But what exactly does “phygital” look like in an exhibition setting? And how are experiential designers in Southeast Asia interpreting it?
To answer these questions, SEGD’s Singapore Chapter co-chairs, Olha Romaniuk (Creative Director, Devarch) and Yann Follein (Managing Director, WY-TO) will be moderating an online conversation with fellow designers to explore the concept of phygital. Titled “Crafting Experiences: Stories by Experiential Designers from Southeast Asia,” the talk will take place on Tuesday, August 31, at 6:30 pm Singapore time (6:30am ET/11:30am GMT).
Olha and Yann have invited three designers, each based in Southeast Asia, to participate in the talk. All three will bring their own varied perspectives and interpretations to the discussion.
- Jackson Tan (Creative Director, BLACK) Artist, curator and designer based in Singapore.
- Laura Miotto (Design Director, GSM Project) Associate Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
- Winai Chairakpong (Principal, b | u | g studio) Designer, university lecturer, and TEDxBangkok speaker based in Thailand.
Jackson Tan will speak about CREATIVE©ITIES, an exhibition designed by BLACK and commissioned by the city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, as part of Kaohsiung’s annual design festival. Phygital displays include data crowdsourced from 10 different “creative cities” in the Asia Pacific region. These exhibits include live data feeds providing snapshots of everyday life and a gallery of animated city maps drawn by local illustrators which showcase each city’s creative traits.
Laura Miotto will speak about “The Posthuman City,” an exhibition presented at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (Singapore) in 2019 and featuring works by artists and designers who explore our contemporary human condition. The exhibition anticipated some of the themes and debates that are happening now during the pandemic. Laura will also present “VEL VEL: A Sonic Walk” launched in 2020 exploring Singapore’s annual Thaipusam festival which was suddenly suspended that year due to the pandemic.
Want to join the conversation? You can participate live, via Zoom, by first registering for the talk here on the Singapore Chapter’s page on the SEGD website. Hope to see you there on August 31!