{"id":3489,"date":"2021-11-28T22:24:52","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T22:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbbd.sg\/blog\/?p=3489"},"modified":"2021-12-22T00:51:52","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T00:51:52","slug":"data-mining-jurong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbbd.sg\/blog\/2021\/11\/data-mining-jurong\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Mining Jurong: The process behind the work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early this year I was approached by Singapore Art Museum to develop a data visualisation \u00d7 art project in Jurong. I’ve been teaching Interaction Design for quite some time and thought it would be great to involve my students in the project since the project’s intentions was about co-creating and shaping the work together with communities of people.<\/p>\n

The story and the place<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It seemed that oil and industry was a big part of the narrative of Jurong, although for most residents – this was only glimpsed from afar and through the media. There was much curiosity about the caverns, and I had found this rather aspirational looking photo of the groundbreaking ceremony of Jurong Rock Cavern – which I later discovered to be a set piece.<\/p>\n

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Screenshot \/ Image from Straits Times<\/small><\/p>\n

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Screenshot from Google – Image search for visually similar images to the previous image<\/small><\/p>\n

I really liked this image of the set piece for the Jurong Rock Caverns (a giant commercial underground rock cavern facility for the storage of liquid hydrocarbons ie: things like propane, butane, and ethane which are produced from crude oil). This particular picture and set piece could be reinterpreted in so many different ways – the set piece could simultanously represent the reality of this actual groundbreaking ceremony – and another parallel reality where we imagined a completely different Jurong:<\/p>\n

A Story: <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

During tunnelling works for the upcoming Jurong Region Line, discoveries of oil were made under Jurong. Using new tools of modern computational archaeology which allow for remote sensing and deep earth scanning even under densely urban built areas, Jurong was discovered to be located on top of a significant discovery of oil.<\/p>\n

The Singapore government decides on compulsory purchase of the buildings in the area and residents are relocated so that Jurong can be mined. Residents are forced to vacate their homes in Jurong and relocate.<\/p>\n

On the site where the flats once stood, there is now an infinite deep mine shaft. As you slowly descend the mysterious, infinitely deep cavernous mine shaft, objects from Jurong’s past and present can be found in the layers of the rock strata. The residents come to visit the tunnel, they ask, “What is Jurong?…”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The inspiration for a story about striking gold with oil came from an article from the FRONT PAGE of the Business Times on 1 April 1985. You may want to ask me where I randomly discovered an article from 1985 and, well, so I went back to trace my, ahem, browsing activities on 1 April 2021:<\/p>\n

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Er…Tiktok, how did you know I like to read about history on my FYP? Thanks @historyogi<\/small><\/p>\n

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This was a set of articles which included repartees from the “public” declaring themselves vindicated and demanding the halt to MRT tunneling works so the investigation for oil could be conducted. And I thought that at a glance, this could easily be reinterpreted at face value in so many different ways. What if this article was about Jurong, as the Jurong Region Line is being constructed? (Jurong Region Line will be Singapore’s 7th MRT line and is currently targetted for completion in 2029)<\/p>\n

The Tunnel<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A visual reference that I gave to my students was this video from “HUGE DANNY” \/ Danny L Harle \/ DJ Mayhem, directed by Sam Rolfes & Andy Rolfes. Also, because my 2-year old is obsessed with this video, I may have watched this hundreds of times, and now I too want to freefall down an epic tunnel whilst chased by a monster with a big redhot hammer…<\/p>\n