Not Mere Spectators

Client: National Gallery Singapore. Year: 2025. Produced through: CraveFX.

Two bookend interactive experiences that frame the exhibition through lived voices and embodied participation, setting the tone at entry and resolution at exit.

The question

How do you meaningfully frame a complex social exhibition without overwhelming visitors or dictating interpretation? Our scope focused on the opening and closing moments of the journey, which needed to establish emotional context, invite participation, and leave visitors with a sense of reflection. These interactions had to operate independently, yet resonate with the exhibition as a whole.

The approach

• At the entrance, Project Citizens functions as an invitation rather than an explanation. A large-format video wall presents interviews with individuals of multicultural backgrounds, conducted by students, allowing visitors to choose who to listen to and in which language. Directional audio delivered via overhead sound showers creates an intimate listening experience despite the scale of the display.
• At the conclusion of the exhibition, Pledge shifts the visitor from observer to participant. Visitors select a word from the Singapore Pledge that resonates personally, then interpret it through movement. Using multiple Orbbec depth cameras, the system captures motion and transforms it into abstracted silhouettes, preserving anonymity while foregrounding expression.
• These two experiences intentionally bookend the exhibition, which includes several intermediate sections designed by our partners. Rather than replicating content, our interactions focus on framing the journey, setting an emotional entry point and a collective closing moment that visually gathers individual participation into a shared presence.

Selected images

• Visitors gathering at the Not Mere Spectators exhibition entrance at National Gallery Singapore.
• Project Citizens video wall featuring Stories From The Founding Generations - multilingual interviews with elderly Singaporeans sharing their multicultural identities.
• Pledge interaction area using depth cameras to record interpretive dances.

Reflection

This experience, specifically the Pledge interaction, went through seven distinct iterations before it arrived at its final form. Each version solved something, but also exposed a new weakness or unanswered question. What I learned through that process is that ideas rarely arrive complete. They need to be tested in the real world, challenged by constraints, and allowed to fail in small, useful ways.

I also learned the value of restraint. Some earlier versions of Pledge were louder, more explicit, or more technically ambitious, but they distracted from what the interaction was really meant to do. Over time, it became quieter and more focused, not because less effort went into it, but because we understood better what to remove.

Most importantly, working through these iterations reinforced my belief that meaningful interactive experiences are shaped through patience and listening. When you stay with a problem long enough and observe how people actually respond, the work begins to guide its own refinement, and something more honest and lasting has a chance to emerge.

Credits

National Heritage Board, Founders Memorial, Kingsmen