Yesterday was my last day at work – left all the inflatables behind, distributed the stationery to the hungry children, returned my access cards to HR, and stood on that fateful smoking balcony with L for the last time. There is surprisingly much less sadness than I expected, and more a sense of LIBERATION. I’ve realised that I have actually not known a Singapore which does not involve intense overtime working. I started work here 1.5 years ago, 3 days after landing back in Singapore from London.
But then again, even now that I’ve stopped, I am still working. On my own things. They are still overwhelming. But at least this year I’ve managed to do one thing that I really wanted to do:
After two horrifying months of intensive work I’ve built my first interactive “reactable” setup and set up my first solo exhibition, as part of the Substation Open Call. Miraculously, despite being a failure at mathematics and science, I actually learnt how to devise the entire technical setup with the power of the INTERNET. And entirely on my own! With some help of Dominic and Hongda to put together the physical components (plus Hongda’s very professional lookin alumnium profiles and dominic’s superior light mounting mirror arrangement skillz), I put together some code on my own (“My First AS3 Class” – i kid you not, but i actually called it that in the beginning, because it was my first attempt at a major project in AS3) and suddenly SHOCK! HORROR! THE MONSTER IS ALIVE!
While the rest of the works at the exhibition are just as important, this quite nearly killed me. Up till that Sunday before the opening, I was still furiously fixing code errors, because I had decided not to waste any more time looking for a programmer; so I decided to learn to do it myself.
Next up I must build a more musical reactable. Maybe I shall read up more about wiimotes too!
ps: the poster, flyer and catalogue was designed by the wonderful and amazing guys at the Asylum!