Compass

I guess I have finally decided which possible future to take. Picture the future to be this really far off place over the horizon and where you are right now is an intersection with many arrows pointing to all sorts of paths. Some paths paved with gravel, others paved with asphalt. All leading to the grave. At the end of the road, everyone ends up where it all began.

I hope I haven't made an unwise decision to pursue law. Only time will tell I guess.

By the way, I have been toying with the idea of making a switch to Tumblr.

What art means to me.

What art means to me.

Is art useless? An age-old question society has time and again asked. We ask how art has shaped our society and if there is any importance in today’s fast paced economic world. Why should we be placing emphasis on the arts if we are marred by the great number of socio-economic and environmental problems we face today? I for one believe that art has the power to tackle these issues. I believe that the explorative, contemplative, dynamic nature of art can inspire society to rethink how we handle problems and in the process better society.

Let’s first look at how art has evolved to what it is today. There was a change in the perception of art after French artist Duchamp challenged tradition art beliefs with his work entitled Fountain. Traditionally, art was purely aesthetic. However, with Duchamp’s work, art became a social commentator. Art became contemplative. Today, art is used as a medium to explore society’s norms and to question beliefs.

With the idea that art is contemplative in nature, we can use it to encourage people to try and better understand others. Art allows the artist to express the intangible in a more tangible form for others to understand. Take the work of local artist Amanda Heng for instance. Her work revolves largely around the role of women today and in the past. One of her works depicted an iron on top of a type of traditional female wear suspended over words like womb written on the floor with the artist’s hair. The artist was trying to convey what society deemed was what made a woman. What one simple exhibit has done was not just to offer a tangible glimpse of the predominant culture and belief of a given era regarding certain groups of people but also to allow a person to visually juxtapose those beliefs to the ones in current times. Art is therefore essentially a platform for people to gain understanding of the different strata in society. This is something that we could exploit. The ability for art to express ideas in manners that is aesthetic and more tangible.

A way to exploit art is as an alternative way to complement current teaching methods today. In the case of education, students depend on text to gain understanding on certain subjects. Art does not discriminate between the literate and the illiterate and offers an opportunity for people of all cultures and ages a chance to have an interpretation of a given subject. The use of art offers the student a visual and more tangible way of gaining learning. Concepts across the subjects of history and social science can be expressed through the use of art. Let us also not forget that using art is not mutual exclusive with traditional styles of education. This way, students with varied aptitudes can have alternative ways of learning. What we are doing in this instance is to help students view links between different subjects and in doing so, create a more holistic education. This way, we reach out to more students and in the process tackle apathy amongst youth towards society.

Along with the knowledge gained from exploring new interests through art, the imaginative nature of art encourages people to explore beyond their boundaries. This helps allows people to develop their creative side and what the world needs today are innovative and creative solutions to tackle problems. This is where art along with engineering and other field have a role to play.


Innate skills such as creativity can be developed through art. Also, the constant need to explore and embrace new ideas either during the course of creating art or trying to understand art, make one’s mind a fertile ground for innovative ideas to not just take root, but to flourish. Creative solutions such as solar cookers distributed by SunFire Solutions in Johannesburg are examples of good innovation and good design that can help combat climate change by reducing the number of forest cleared for the burning firewood in poor parts Africa and provide remote locations the means to heat food. As such, we can better develop creative societies that can handle the increasing complexity of today’s problems through the use of artistic exploration.

If we examine our economic and environmental problems and there is a common underlying cause - the human desire for more. The problem of climate change today is a cumulative effect of burning fossil fuels to feed the energy hungry world. What sparked the series of recent economic downturns were the leading men who threw ethics to the winds in the name of money. We want bigger cities, bigger homes and bigger bank accounts. We are beginning to lose ourselves to materialism. Art can serve as a reminder to an individual of the non-material. Art softens the edges of everyday life. The aesthetic quality of art cultivates an appreciation for beauty and the fact that art draws inspiration from life, shows how art is essentially an expressed form of the beauty life holds.

One of the things that set humans apart from animals is the ability to appreciate beauty and feel inspired. One of the key drivers of society today is the economy and if we focus too much on the material, what we begin to lose is the sense of being human. We get lost in today’s lifestyle and start to become ‘cogs in a machine’. However, if we begin to embrace just a little bit more of the arts at our workplaces then what art can teach you is to enjoy beauty. There is more to just money. Take for instance the story of an artist named Jane Echelman. She was invited to speak at a TED conference about her urban art. She shared a story of how an attorney from phoenix who was never interested in art saw Jane’s sculpture suspended over a field and dragged all her colleagues from the office to sit under the sculpture (Her Secret is Patience) to enjoy the piece. Art offers us a space to repose and think and that is what people these days seek for. The spread of Yoga throughout the world and how spas are becoming increasingly popular are signs that people recognise the need to slowdown in life. What art does is to remember the beauty in the non-material aspects of life and give us another way to slowdown.

Lastly, I have to add that though art, on a more direct and immediate level does not add much to the material economy of the world, it should not be neglected as there is much long-term and intangible benefits to gain. So, despite comments like how art is for the rich or art carries little practical sense in a world profit, I see art in a different light. I see it as beneficial and relevant to our society.

University.

Admissions. Admissions. I pray that I get into any of the 2 local law schools this year.

So long.

Been some time since I last typed anything on this blog. Time sure flies. It flashes by right in front of your eyes. Sometimes I wonder what time would look like - how it would manifest itself in a visual form if it could. Looking at images of children in their grandparent's laps or a child hidden safe in his mother's bosom seem to bring the idea of time into my mind. I guess I tend to relate time to precious moments in the past. Say 'time' and I'd probably be thinking of the past as opposed to the future.

Speaking of the past. This song really makes me think of the process of aging; of time lapsing. The sand in our 'life' glasses slowly building up to our expiry.

Unspoken.

I doubt anyone will ever find out but I long for you to know. It is odd, it is very unnatural, yet I have a strange longing. I dream of hypothetical scenarios that serve well to my emotions. Yet, I am drained in the morning that I wake. Perhaps I'd find some peace if I do forget. Yet, I choose not. I do not want. There is a strange longing that says, hold on to that tiny spark. The world may look upon it as stupidity. Is there any intellect in this? All is fair in love and war.

Epilogue.

The end of things. The last chapter.

Imperfections.

The world is marred by imperfections. The blemish on your skin, the dead leaf on the tree. Yet, in all it's imperfections is a system perfected over time. On a macro scale, the little imperfections make nature relatively perfect. If it were not for mutations to DNA, there would be no variation and there would be no selection of the fittest. Every mechanism works in tandem. Gaudi, the Architect of Sagrada Familia, a basilica that has taken more than a lifetime to complete and well, is still pretty much incomplete, knew this well. The cathedral featured sinewy columns and organic shapes. In all the twists, the flow, the cathedral was an architectural marvel. The weight distribution was done so in a very different way from previous Gothic designs. Gaudi understood nature. It is nature to have imperfect shapes. I have spoken much but made little a point. Well, it is pretty simple. Imperfections, you just have to view them in a different light.

Before the 8th of February.

I plan to create a painting depicting what I feel about Singapore's political scene and probably a video about youth issues.

Gone. All gone.

One day you are going to wake up to find that everything you hold dear is gone. You lead a life of superficiality; like a plant that has not sunken it's roots deep into the soil. One day the winds will come and uproot you. I feel strangely empty. What I know, what is constructed around me seems so paper thin, so fragile.

Satisfaction.

Are we never satisfied? The consumerist society we live in today is a striking example or want over need. America's consumption has ballooned over the decade, first 60 percent now 70 percent of US GDP comprise of consumer expenditure. Discontented with what we have, we seek for more. Indeed this is an attribute of progress, the search for the greater, however when is enough enough? Living life on excess.

Consumerism aside, have I plateaued? It seems like despite the want to achieve good grades - mind you this is not of those pragmatic-type of achievements whereby education = success, but rather more of a benchmark to say, 'I have come thus far, now push forth.' - I seem to not put in as much work as I ought to. I am regressing.

My thoughts are messed up.

Tweed

Like woven mats, how intricate tweed is. Much like life if you put it in perspective.

Defy gravity.

One day I will fly and when I do, no one is going to hold me down.

Catharsis

Some times, pent up emotions erupt. It may be a dramatic release yet it could well be a mere realization. I feel like a rag doll going through the motions. Walking pass empty classrooms and vast corridors. I can be in a sea of people and still feel alone. I'm scared to some extent. Silence is a scary sound.

As weird as it may be but it's these times that I think the best. I naturally would be able to think deep enough, well, at least to me that is. It is also in such times that I seem to like black and white or sepia images. Those really oxidised photographs. In fact, my Father was showing me a couple of pictures of the GrandFather I have never met yesterday. He passed me a couple of pictures taken when I was really young. I miss the times I'd spend in United Mansion (Siglap). I would get up to the crowing of my neighbour's rooster. The times I would stand next to my Father with a torch in my hand shouting at potential thieves. I can remember the time when some one's painting was stolen from her house. My GrandMother would plant cactuses in the balcony to act as scarethieves (scarecrow). Apparently cactuses look like humans standing by the balcony at night. If that wasn't a good enough deterrent, I'm sure the thorns would prove handy.

You know, pictures of World War II seem to appeal to me. Well not the gore and the deaths but rather the smiles of the soldier and the streets of warring parties. It is perturbing but images of bombed walls and rubble appeals to me. In fact, I like walls. Walls are nice. Empty canvases just there for your imagination to take hold of. Paint, shadow play, anything you'd fancy. It gives you that sense of security too. The feeling of being protected. It feels nice to watch the world behind walls. Then again, this can all change. When I'm down or flustered by what ever that is and has and is going to transpire, it is this inexplicable feeling of sadness that provides comfort to the soul. It is like a battered hobo finding shelter in a less-than-perfect wooden hut in the midst of winter.

Faces.

It is weird how there are so many people in the world - 6,697,254,041 yet a mere fraction, no a mere 'nano' fraction of which consists of you and your circle of friends. Even within that circle, you have even lesser friends whom you can truly say are friends for the lines between acquaintances and friends often blur and maintain such fluidity. It is important to maintain relationships as it withers rather easily. Long periods of lack of communication does not mean the end of friendship but it does undo the intricately and meticulously weaved ties you have between the other. In fact, this rule may well apply to every relationship a person has. Darwinian as it seems but the relationships you put the most effort in to make it survive are the ones that remain and bear fruit. Those you leave to ferment turn sour like how sweet grapes turn to sour wine.

I have been wondering, pondering, any other word in the vernacular that describes a sense of thinking, about a lot of things lately. I don't know the me that I used to know. It is scary. Frightening to come to a realization that even you know little of yourself. Wait. No, that is not true. You know so much about yourself that you find it hard to embrace certain aspects of it. You refuse to acknowledge it. That is the frightening part. You are a part of yourself but yet apart.It is like this 'pyscho-physical' apartheid. I fear for the future, it yields so much uncertainty. I know not of what is to come and I am scare for what it brings. Life is this big complex web, much like a spiders web, where everything connects and entangles. A person is a mere insect flying through that web. You might get caught up in the web and if you do and try to break free, the more you struggle, it less futile your attempts may be. Then again, it might not be true. Who are the spiders then? The architects of the web? Everyone.

How sad that my take on life is so harrowing.

?

Uncertainty makes the world a scary scary place. You don't know what to do, where to go. You might just fall into a hole. Uncertainty makes the world a scary scary place. You might soar high and touch the sky. You might not so, instead fall down below. Uncertainty makes the world a scary scary place. It's a double-edged sword.

Shut up.

There are so many people talking at the same time. So many ideas floating around. So much to do, so little will. Shut up.

Trees.

You know it's funny how people are generally drawn to natural things. Just look at the hype over organic products. Oh how women tell their friends that their cosmetics are made from organic material. I guess, in a way, we are drawn to nature.

Perhaps, it is the way nature has a calming effect on a person. Perhaps, we do feel that we are, after all, interconnected. We are apart yet a part of the ecosystem. If we go right down to the basics, from the largest whales to the smallest prions, we are all made of the same stuff. The same bases; purines and pyrimidines. Yet, we have evolved and deviated far from all other things natural. Our intelligence is one of our greatest gifts, then again, our greatest curse. We built civilisations. We built machinery. We are building our watery graves.

I just fluffed a whole lot of fluff...

Wrote a GP essay today.

A levels 2009 paper 1, question 2

‘Only educated people should have the right to vote in elections.’ What is your view?

Democracy is one of the most influential and pervasive form of governance in many First World societies today. The basis of democracy is by the people, for the people, the idea of majority rights. However, it has long been criticised. Democracy is seen to fail due to the irrational voter and the sheer lack of sufficient political education. Who should hold the votes then? There are those who say that the educated professionals have the greatest capacity to make the most pragmatic and informed decisions. However, the consequences are great should they be the only ones to hold the vote. It destroys the fundamentals of democracy; instead, it could well be oligarchy. It may cause a clear dichotomy between the bourgeois and proletariat and such fragmentation of society is damaging.

One of the common arguments put forth when justifying the move to allow the educated the only ones to hold the vote is the idea of the irrational voter. As put forth by American economist Milton Friedman, the idea is that the voter makes ill-informed choices that are normally driven by emotional or populist ideas. If we examine the two distinct education levels of society, the educated professionals are most definitely better equipped with the necessary tools to discern and rationalise. With education comes knowledge and with it comes awareness of issues. Educated individuals tend to have greater interest in politics as it appeals to their level of intellect. There is a higher propensity for an educated individual to sieve out what is pragmatic and best for the society as opposed to an uneducated individual who would probably go with populist measures. We can see this in African communities. One of the reasons for poverty in African communities is the lack of foresight; to a struggling person, short-term goals such as using aid money for farming mean much more than the potentially long-term benefits of education. Similarly, short-term populist policies that may appeal to the uneducated and many a times money is used as a carrot. As such, we can draw a lesson that circumstance and the lack of awareness may lead to decisions that might not be the best for society. However, as the educated few are smaller in a society, their votes are diluted. We can see this trend across nations with significantly more educated individuals as compared to those with lesser of such individuals. The governments of First World nations tend to fare better than those in the Third World be it economically or politically. On a superficial level, we can see that there is a close correlation between educated populations and how well a nation is doing. So, educated people should be the ones holding the votes because they are discerning and can decide for what is best for a nation.

However, this logic is flawed. Such a train of thought is an Orwellian utopia painted out in 1984. We increasingly see how long standing proponents of democracy face economic or political problems. Japan with her ever-changing leadership; the last one ending after nine months. The controversial Bush administration in handling foreign affairs; look at how many relationships turned sour over the course of five years in office. Ironically, these are countries close to the ideal democracy and with high education levels. What we need today is more then mere education, more than being teaching individuals skills for the workplace. We need to teach politics and discernment. We need to instil in populations the strong decisiveness of what is right from wrong. We have long preached about giving rights to individuals and that individuals should be free to exercise those rights. However, have we stopped to give individuals the necessary tools to exercise those rights effectively? Educated or not, the education received may well be irrelevant if what is taught does not address this aspect. Einstein once said that God does not play dice. Can you imagine how our physical world would be if things were merely random. We cannot afford to play dice with who governs us or generations preceding us will have a greater problem at hand. This is evident with the immense task ahead of the new Obama administration.

Perhaps the educated may choose the most effective government, however the consequences would be disastrous. What is the message sent to communities when the educated are the only ones voting? It essential strips the uneducated off the rights to decide from himself how he would be governed. It is effectively then, the educated ruling over the uneducated. May I also point out that the truth of the matter is that with higher education levels do we have greater earning power in today’s knowledge based economy. In other words, it may seem like hegemony of one social class over the other. We fragment a society and the consequence of that is worse as compared to a less than competent government. Governments may change to suit the people however; to reunite divided people is difficult. How long will it take before the highly educated rich South Koreans and the less educated poor North Koreans join hands once again? The fall of aristocracy in most societies has shown how clear divisions in society cannot thrive. Dividing the people may cause great social upheavals that could lead to wide spread violence. It would take immense amount of energy to quell such violence, especially so for a group of once free citizens. The loss of rights to vote is the loss of deciding what benefits and policies you can gain. It is like a parent losing control over her teenage child. It is beyond your ability to change the situation. Should we risk such a possibility just to allow the elite to lord over the rest and decide for what is the best? The Orwellian utopia is too great a risk to take. Let us learn from history not to commit such a mistake again.

Besides, if a democracy calls for the mandate of the people, then the elitist movement is against the very grain of modern democracy. The Greek democracy was to allow the elites to decide, however in our progressive society today, we cannot fall back on that system. In a nutshell, I have present to you how the idea that the educated can decide the best is essentially flawed. I have also shown you that the consequence of the implementation of an elitist system is a great cost on society.

My two cents worth. Heh.

Strange loneliness.

You know, it is weird that we have become so deeply dependent on technology that when we do lose touch of it, there seems to be a void. It takes a lost phone for me to find some peace. Some strange quiet. This eerie silence. Only up to lately, my head has been an endless buzz of white noise. It's like flipping between 2 radio stations. It is like rain drops on a zinc roof. Continuous and sustained. I guess this peace have helped me, inadvertently, achieve the much needed momentum I have been finding to get my studies back on track. Like a pendulum, it ticks and tocs to and fro, the only difference is that my pendulum gains speed. What is friction, what is gravity? It is but a void. Rubbish, bunk they exclaim but it makes perfect sense to me. Then again, I contradict for every time I think of my phone and money, I feel highly uneasy. Very much peeved. But the sounds of chimes, xylophones and electronic pianos fill my head once again. It's like the harmonics of a violin or guitar when you pluck. (try doing a quick light hit on your 12th fret whilst plucking the string. No? You're just not doing it right :p) Leaves you with that peace, that seemingly psychedelic feeling. Your eyes grow heavy and your worries slip away. Slumber may sometimes be the best temporal escape from worldly worries. Your conscious meets your unconscious. Soon after REM, you let the latter take over. Suppressed thoughts roam. The irony of humans is that, it does feel good when it hurts at times though you know it is a sick thought. It's just that, you become accustomed to it. You learn how to embrace hurt. It leaves you numb and that is sometimes much better than anything you would probably be feeling then. Numb, a void. Peace.

Deep well.

"Spanish Pavilion at the World Expo 2010"

I have been swamped. I am lost. Lagged behind. I just don't know where to start. I mean, yes it is sure easy to take a book and start revising. However, it has got to feel right for the information to be absorbed. The mid year examination results have been really depressing and after weeks of holiday, gaining what momentum I have lost has been a vail attempt. I really need to buck up. I need that spark again. Sometimes I wonder if I should regret. However, wallowing in self pity isn't going to solve anything. I am going to pick myself up and get back on the road to the university again. Until then, I shall ponder and let the cooped up stress all out. (Don't worry, I'm not going to throw bins into the squash court, yeah someone actually did that in school.) In case you are wondering what relevance does the image have to this post, well it was chosen initially because it looked nice to me but as I stare at it, some sense came out of it. Life is full of intricacies woven together and layered. You can either see it as beauty and marvel at it and not do a thing, you can decide that it would be too tough to navigate through it or you can decide that you'd reach for the light at the end of the labyrinth.