Set against the stunning backdrop of Marina Bay Sands' skyline, the online performance titled 𝘈 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 by Sungsil Ryu showcased her promotion of the online project, Big King Airlines New Engine Fundraising Drive (2023). 

Drawing inspiration from her lived experiences in South Korea and Singapore, the performance served as a satirical commentary on societal behaviours influenced by consumer-driven lifestyles. Sungsil delved into various aspects, from narrating how her family's experience during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis impacted her to recounting personal experiences as both a fraud victim and perpetrator. She shared how these events ultimately contributed to her achieving economic success within her artistic practice.

Utilising popular aesthetics commonly found in online broadcasting through platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and more, Sungsil, in her absurdist critique, highlighted the intricate world of “self-promotion” and its scam-like mechanics. 

The online performance was introduced by SAM curator Syaheedah Iskandar. This session was held in conjunction with the series 𝘚𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴.

This online visual lecture by Bahar Noorizadeh centers around her recent work,  𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦 (2023) commissioned for  𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴 1_𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘴, a virtual exhibition by SAM. Hear from Noorizadeh on key ideas and research that shape the work, which proposes Hong Kong as a simulated game space for market theorists in the second half of the 20th century and economic policy as a worldbuilding tool.

An operatic financial sci-fi,  𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦is narrated by Milton Friedman, an American economist who was the real-life evangelist of Hong Kong’s free market policies. The work reframes financial instruments as a time-travelling machine that allows the wealthy to borrow money from their future selves. It follows Philip Tose—an ex-race car driver and CEO of an insolvent company— from 1997 to 2047 as he attempts to escape the impact of the economic crash to seek a bailout from his older self. Hong Kong in 2047 is ridden with the aftereffects of Friedman’s advocacy, where economic freedom has not produced the unparalleled human freedom that he predicted but new forms of corruption. In this dystopia, preferential treatment for time-travel is given to the rich and powerful, while young “credit rating” activists demand universal access to the future.

The visual lecture was followed by a conversation with SAM curator Duncan Bass. This session was held in conjunction with the series  𝘚𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴.

𝘖𝘧 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 presents an insight into Natasha Tontey’s ongoing speculations into how we may act, react, think, and rethink our relationship with technology.

Emerging from her own background and personal histories, Natasha’s art offers incredible insights into evolving indigenous perspectives towards machines. 𝘖𝘧 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 borrows from Natasha’s engagement with communities from Minahasa in Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia, and their approach to technology as well as evolving relationship with daily rituals and mystical beliefs. For instance, with widespread accessibility to the internet, Minahasa communities have incorporated smartphones to support daily rituals. In a recent cultural assembly, artificial intelligence was discussed rigorously. This performance-lecture maintains Natasha’s approach to generating speculative narratives with the hope that alternative worldviews may emerge in the conditions of our times. Audiences will be prompted to participate in a dialogue activity, which will be integrated into a digital ritual procession as part of the lecture performance in the second half of the programme.

The session was followed by a conversation and Q&A moderated by SAM curator Syaheedah Iskandar. This session is held in conjunction with the programme series  𝘚𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴.

In this online presentation, Maya Man interrogates the performance of personal identity using digital platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Incorporating desktop collage, screen performance, and lecture, Putting Myself on Screen is a digital performance that seeks to highlight how it is impossible to separate our “authentic” and digital personalities on the internet.

The virtual performance is developed using Maya’s social media posts and real time web animation in order to construct a new digital portrait. Responding to this on-screen collage, Maya adopts the format of a YouTube ‘reaction video,’ engaging with her own image in a second performance that moves between satire and self-reflection.

Drawing on sociology and internet culture, the post-performance lecture “Putting Yourself on Screen” unpacks the concepts of authenticity and performativity in relation to Maya’s artistic practice, including formative projects such as ‘FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT’ (2022), ‘Glance Back’ (2018 – ongoing), and ‘COLLECT THE ARTIST’ (2022), digital artworks that use creative-coding technologies to explore identity and self-image.

The performance will be followed by a conversation and Q&A moderated by SAM curator Duncan Bass. This session is held in conjunction with the programme series Skill Futures.

In this online performance, Suzanne Kite composes a ‘visual score’ – a form of experimental music notation – entailing symbolic forms that performers and musicians can read and interpret. Deriving ideologies from traditional Lakȟóta artmaking, as seen in their quillwork and beadwork, these processes of visual score-reading are reflected in their geometric designs, and translated from the aftermath of a waking or sleeping dream.

Similarly to reading and writing music, these designs communicate concepts without verbal language, becoming a semiotic language, a language of symbols that do not have to be explained. Like stories, their meaning changes over time and develops over a lifetime, no longer confined to its original interpretation. Creating a dream narrative from a collection of visions re-enacted through videos, the performance, ‘Tȟaŋmáhel’, will assign visions to symbols and weave a complete graphic score into being.

Deep(Artist)Talking explores the nature of deliberate mistakes in feedback systems to arrive at divergent solutions. In this collaborative performance, a bot constantly listens, eavesdrops, and responds to humans, using imperfect machine learning techniques to reinterpret spoken words. Errors in the model help generate new and unpredictable narratives that loop back into its algorithms. Humans and machines will together create a broken conversation, a continuous poem flowing between the personal and the mechanical. Following the performance, Tiri engages in conversation and Q&A moderated by SAM curators Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol and Syaheedah Iskandar. “Deep(Artist)Talking” asks: can we, humans and machines, learn and evolve from each other.