the embodiment of knowledge

I stared very hard at a car and a market today, and my mind begin to drift away into thinking about how social knowledge/information is embodied by food centres and cars. What does a market embody? It embodies the socio-cultural norms embedded in the neighbourhoods, in the food that it contains, in the items that it sells to the residents. What about cars? Still thinking about it though, but I think I am on to something there. I'm now trying to think of EVERYTHING physical artifact as embodying some kind of social/personal information, but I'm not sure how it might all work out. 

What kind of informational flows? I imagine cars to be outfitted with sensors and flexible surfaces so they change the aerodynamic profile given different road, temperature, and air conditions. But thats merely autonomous smart systems, and aren't really paradigm busting. Similarly for buildings - how buildings might self-optimise for energy efficiency - but thats not really new. I don't want to be looking at smart systems, I'm looking for relational, social information, and how they are embodied in the physical artifacts in our lives. 

What does a car represent as an artifact of society? How does a 'car' reflect the personalities of the user? Ditto for a market - how does a market/food centre represent the neighbourhood and the people living in it? How people are part of a larger community, incorporating them into their identity, creating this personal mosaic, perhaps...

Now, I admit that many of these things sound rather abstract, but all of these thoughts and ideas come down to this: how do we think of institutions as stores of information, and what can we take out from thinking in this way?

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thinking about identity, food culture, and culture in general

I've actually talked about something like this, but today, there's a different epiphany of sorts. I remembered talking about social change with my pals at NS, and they were hardly receptive about the idea. They erm... well... can't really connect to that idea of a different Singapore. All they want to do, was to get on with life, go to university, get a job, have a nice life. The old me back then would hold partially-elitist thought at them being satisfied with the status quo, and try to convince them that a better future was possible.

But now, the present me would go, 'Thats cool!'

I realise that talk about all those abstract things about social and technological revolutions - all of it seems hollow (vacuous) when I look at the guy in front me in a coffeeshop chopping pieces of meat. I wonder what he wants - just a simple life, I guess, save up enough money, buy a house, even a car, have a family, raise kids, send them off to university, perhaps. And its all the same. All of these choices seem to be equally valid ways to live their lives, and there's no badness or wrongness about it. Its only elitist people with their heads in the clouds who would want to impose a different choice for them, and to declare that ONLY these lifestyles are 'good', 'right' lifestyles to live. Which is plain nonsense.

At the same time, I'm starting to not really care about who's in front me when I order food. Be it Chinese nationals (which is beginning to become common) or anyone else - it just doesn't matter. Its a decent job, serving happiness in the form of food - everyone needs to eat, right?

As for issues of integration and assimilation, well... I guess its just one of those things that takes time. Time for them to settle down, to adapt to Singapore society.

And I'm thinking about the need for creativity. Even culinary creativity, and not just the traditional notions of academic or artistic creativity. Thinking about the notion of cultural hacking, looking at how we might change cultural norms of food and rituals, and how they might be transformed in new ways - something unexpected, but pleasant and desirable. In this instance, I'm thinking about how we might hack our food to become unique Singapore variants of food eaten in SEA.

Is it still feasible to think about intelligent jobs? The perspective that all jobs are really a form of information arbitrage between the source and the consumer. Intelligent jobs are suppose to break down the information asymmetry between the producer and the consumer for mutual benefit. How might that work out?

I guess I'll be on this line of thinking for a while...

So, what really is social change? Its more like, social justice - meaning, have equitable jobs for all, even redistributive income system of taxation, political fairness, inclusiveness, openness.

Again, coming back to the point that the average person on the street really just want to get on with life, unless there is something that captures their imagination.

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Twilight Industries

In our world today, I think this quote is true: Anything that isn’t digitised will eventually die out.

Well, obviously historians will be very much bothered by this. In their museums, they have relics from a time way before computers. So what gives me justification to say something like that?

Well, in our present day, especially in Singapore, there are whole varieties of cultural artefacts that will slowly become extinct, becoming only tourist exhibits, to be seen and no longer experienced. And today, these cultural artefacts are disappearing before our very eyes.

The reason that I’m talking about only Chinese cultural artefacts is because I’m most familiar with them. I’m talking about the Chinese temples, lion dances, getais, puppet shows, Chinese Operas, and other aspects of traditional Chinese art.

To just state generally what these things are, these are remnants of the culture that our immigrant forefathers brought with them as they came to Singapore. These things are essentially pieces of cultural China that they brought with them. You might be thinking, since these arts are still flourishing in China, why should we bother about preserving them in Singapore? That’s a rather good question, and I think that my attempt to answer them will be rather pitiful and fall far short of an actual justification.

Yes, these arts are still flourishing in China. That’s why performing troupes from China come down to Singapore regularly for some art performance or another. The reason that I want to highlight this little cultural nugget is because these artefacts of culture represent an immense treasure trove with which we could redefine Singapore’s identity.

I’m not an artist, nor am I a student of art history, which makes me rather unqualified to make statements like these. But I feel that the old parts of Singapore, both intangible and tangible, should be thrown away that easily just because of their age. We talk of our ‘Asian-ness’ so much that we hardly give attention to what it actually means. Redefining our traditions might be a place to start redefining ourselves.

We should start first and foremost, by going digital, make it available to everyone on the Internet. Set up communities who are dedicated to the preservation of these arts. Have a generation of art students interested in them and allow them to gradually redefine these arts with contemporary interpretation. Have national recognition for traditional arts and recreations. Better yet, suggest how these traditions can be revitalised today. Can we fuse them with Western ideals?

For those who didn’t know, Curse of the Golden Flower, yes – that movie with jay Chou and Gong-Li’s boobs – was actually a rehashing of a play written by a Chinese playwright written in 1934. The message is still the same, but the settings have changed, and made for a modern audience. We need more mishmash like that if traditional arts are going to have a foothold in our iPOD era.

I was at a temple this morning, supposedly to give respects to ancestors and all the usual traditional Chinese thing. It then struck me, what will happen to all these if, supposedly, everyone believes in the Christian God? What will happen to all these structures? They represent a great cultural wealth - as art to be appreciated maybe...

Thats for something else. There are really just so much to be seen, felt, experienced in Singapore...

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