Tag: Singapore

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Final Reflection Post on Service: Urban Gardening

Urban Gardening has been fun and exciting. Through this service, I have progressed quite a lot and have learnt much about gardening and sustainability. Although I had a vague idea that green rooftops were sustainable I wasn’t exactly sure why or how. Green roofs act almost as an insulation and so a building doesn’t need as much air conditioning as it would normally do. In addition, although Singapore has no winter season, green rooftops also act as an insulator to the cold during winter. Thus they reduce energy costs and the Urban Heat Island effect which is a process in which urban environments absorb heat making the hotter than the surrounding rural areas.

Green roofs also provide shade, remove air particulates (as in pollution, especially carbon dioxide) and produce oxygen. They last twice as long as normal roofs and reduce and sometimes slow stormwater runoff. So this is what I have been contributing to school and what I have learnt about green roofs in urban environments and sustainability.

Furthermore, I have developed many group skills such as communication, leadership and organisation which is needed to maintain a healthy garden and a well-contributing group. I have also learnt a lot about gardening which includes gardening skills such as transplanting, propagating, fertilising. Or tools such as the difference between spades and shovels, and what a hoe is used for. I have also learnt different types of plants and what they need or provide through research such as how beans (image below) grow fast, release nitrogen into the soil and need to grow on something:

I have learnt a lot more about plants and something interesting that I have learnt is how asexual banana plants will grow smaller banana plants around the main one, which started happening when I transplanted a banana plant to my bed:

Moreover, not only have I been contributing to environmental sustainability but I have also used the garden for other purposes such as giving fruits, mainly papaya, to Fresh Fruit Friday, a service aimed at providing fresh fruits for migrant workers. I have also been planning on providing vegetables to another service which aims to provide fresh vegetables to the school community, and planning to give information sessions to parents on how they can make their own garden, especially grow their own food. This service has in somewhat inspired me to be more environmentally aware and I have started to grow into my passion for the environment.

 

Below are some photos of the evolution of my and my partner’s garden bed.

              

 

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The Tale of Tiffin, Cancer and Dementia

Writers Fortnight:

Today, I recently listened to a Singaporean artist called Danny Raven Tan. I have gathered 4 images from the noun project and I will explain how these represent the ideas that came up in the presentation as well as the questions I would have liked to ask:

Tiffin:

I have used the Tiffin icon because it represents the art form and approach that Dany Raven Tan uniquely has. He owns a home gallery just like my grandmother in Sweden and has decided to call his gallery “Tiffin”. This is because he wants to bring art to the community and he felt that since Singapore has this unique attachment to food and a Tiffin is where you bring your food in, it was the perfect symbol to symbolize this. Furthermore, it is also a symbol of the love of community. I would like to ask you: What activity do you have a special cultural attachment to such as listening to music, eating (food) and playing sports, and why?

Faith:

During this presentation, I learned that Tan is a devoted Christian. Faith has been a huge source of influence and inspiration in his work. He believes that he needs faith, strength and wisdom to survive and cares deeply about God. When he was under chemotherapy, he said that he survived by believing in God, and having his friends and dog nearby. However, I do not hold any religion but it seems to be that Danny Raven Tan thinks deeply about religion and even his middle name Raven, comes from the biblical term for wisdom. In other words, Danny Raven Tan has effectively translated these big ideas into his artwork. Furthermore, I have realized that some individuals need faith to base their actions and opinions and also as a guide. This is possibly why many hold a religion. Finally, I would like to have asked him: what benefits do you think you have acquired from being religious? Also, why has religion played a huge role in your artwork?

Skull:

In terms of this image, it is not meant in the way of the question: what is the meaning of life/death, but rather the regrets we have. When listening to the presentation, Danny Raven Tan talked a lot about the regrets you, him and I have. Since he experienced the traumas of cancer and his mother having dementia, he must have had many bad experiences in his life. However, not only has it made him more accepting of life, but also made him think about taking more chances in life too. He believes that we live to die and he wants to leave good memories behind. Therefore, he tries as much as he can to do the things he wants to do because we never know when we die. This made me think of all the things I want to do and how I can achieve them. Finally, I want to ask you readers: what is the thing you want to achieve most in your life?

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“Writing Against” the Orthodox Religion of Poetry

Hard News Article with a blend of some elements Op-ed and Feature articles:


Marc Nair, Singaporean Poet and Photographer

Marc Nair has recently visited the United World College of South East Asia East Campus (Friday the 19th of January).

Marc Nair is a poet and a photographer who is from Singapore. He has organized and participated in many artistic events as well as collaborating with many artists from around the world.

He has also published seven volumes of poetry as well being the co-founder and principal photographer in his online cultural magazine: Mackerel.

The title of his presentation was “writing against” referring to his approach to poetry and other forms of art. During his presentation, he did several performances where he would act out and read out his poems.

One of the performances was a poem that was written as a song lyric about cliches which he sang about.

He believes that more people should be “more supportive of artists” and described some of his struggles as a Chinese-Indian, where he believes that “radial quotas limit actions” and how “racial classification” determines the actions around us.

Marc Nair talked about how he has an “itchy eye” for themes, issues, messages and culture which explains his diverse set of poems that cover many forms of art.

He described how a lot of his poems are based on what is happening in the media. He also talked about how he often criticises issues and looks at them at unique angles.

When he is vocally performing his poems, he brings a lot of feelings, emotions and elements of drama to captivate his audience about his messages, sometimes involving humour.

Here is some of his work that he talked about during the presentation:


Spomenik: Poems and Photography by Marc Nair

One of his most recent works that he talked about in his presentation is this book which features photography from the Balkans.

He talked about how he wanted to photographs to “speak for themselves” rather than the poems to dictate the photographs.

It is a collection of photographs as well as poems to go along with them where he explores history, faith, war and culture.

This is one of his travels poems where he wanted to “[find] the frame” as well as to “circumnavigate” around trends and “memification” of travelling and experiences in order to become more unique.

Continue reading ““Writing Against” the Orthodox Religion of Poetry”