Umbrella For Two

On Friday, Sarah and I went down to the festival village for Umbrella for Two:

Two people share an umbrella equipped with an MP3 player and two sets of headphones. You take a “sound walk” under this umbrella where the contextual music written suggests fresh perspectives of the surroundings. Voices join the music to feed your imagination in perceiving the obvious sights and sounds in a different way, as well as challenge you to experience visions and sounds differently. The engulfing ambient reality moves you to see the landscape in a manner that will surprise even yourself.

Photographs and the experience under the cut:


I had never explored the city area as extensively as I did in the walk, though I would really love to. I shall grab my hat and fetch my camera and film the world before it happens. The hour long walk consisted of two people under an umbrella listening to sound tracks, while following the signs directing them along the route. There were about 25 sound tracks, ranging from static noises, interviews, rhythmic beats and sounds of the city, like the traffic light sounds and cars whizzing by. My sister loaned me her fab Olympus, which made me feel like a photographer even though I take the most horrible photos. "Yes, that makes a good arty farty shot, lemme take a photo of that." On a side note, I sure wish I had my own camera, even though I think I use this camera more than my sister does. (Hello, a baby like that deserves to be taken out more) I love snapping away, so let me indulge a little.

 This reminded me of the game I used to play with my little sister on our car rides. The aim was to count as many arrow heads as possible by the end of the journey on our respective sides of the car.

I just scrolled up and down for a bit and this photo gave me a headache oooh trippy. This might just be my new favourite building in Singapore. It looks like a cigarette or a kaleidoscope standing on end.

Worm suspended in the air. A must-take.

Oh flowers! Everybody loves flowers take some photos of flowers zoom in on them flowers!!

Finally, we came to the Umbrella for Two booth. First we had to sit in the "Sound Chamber" for about five minutes. We had to put on heavy soundproof  headphones to ~clear our minds~. Well, it didn't really help that the music that was played in the village was a little too loud and the headphones couldn't block that out, if we were supposed to experience silence. 

Still, it was quite stressful with the headphones clamped tight around my ears. The descriptive phrase "fear gripped me" was true for the lack of natural sounds. Silence seemed to have gripped me. It was in a way, eerie for all background noise had been removed. Even the music that was playing seemed too far off. I was in a glass case with reality out of reach.

And we're off on our walk!

This is the big umbrella with an MP3 played attached to the top and two headphone plugged into it. The only button that we had to press was the 'next' button whenever we saw a sign with the track number on it. 

A little blurry, but you get the idea. 

We panicked a little when we took the escalator up to this... mall. Yes, we had to walk through citylink with a big black umbrella and headphones. Of course we received stares, but yes! Attention!

People stare at me stare back lah stare what stare. Oh well, everybody judged us, but I grew to ignore it. See, life skills.

This cute couple was also on the walk. Friend!

Second dead mynah of the week... A sign?

The walk discussed issues like the development in Singapore, in particular the Bukit Brown Cemetery exhumation, highly related to Boom. I loved that there were interviews with the blind and whether of not the city has catered to their disabilities. Along the road, contradicting sounds were played, like traffic light countdown beeping sounds even when it wasn't time to cross, and as we crossed, the screeching of tires and zooming of cars. The audio and the visuals worked hand in hand to produce an entirely new experience for me and pointed out new sights.

Other events in the village

Hi Sarah, here's your tourist shot!

Oh more flowers!!!!

Hi lady tourist. I took lots of photos of the people on the bridge, many of which had the main focus of my other picture in the background. How many photographs have me in the background? How many of these people in the photos I randomly took will I meet in the future?

Alex and Donna Voutisinas thought the first time their paths had crossed was when the couple had begun working together at a hotel. As it turns out, they had come within feet of each other at Disney World when they were just toddlers! They came to this startling realization just days before their marriage while searching for baby pictures to be used at their reception. While looking at a photo of Donna’s family taken at the ‘happiest place on Earth,’ Alex saw HIS FATHER pushing a stroller in the background! As it turns out, both the bride and groom’s families had been vacationing on that same day, and they had the photographic evidence to prove it. via didyouknow

Bucket List: Walk through a mall with an umbrella overhead