Gross National Distress is an organised glossary for a range of works that I am currently making and future projects yet to be realised. The inquiry in its most bare form revisits the phenomena of spirit possessions in the 1970s against the economic and political background of Singapore’s industrialisation strategies. One particular strategy that will also be closely examined is the promotion of “productivity consciousness”. This builds the foundation for works/ideas that obliquely or directly reflect and co-inform the research material. Towards the end of the publication, I will also speak about the various audiovisual experiments that were conducted through the use of the moving image and other forms of art making.

Much of the information in the publication comes from literary sources that have shaped or challenged my own perception of how factory workers operate under structures that govern factory life and labour. This publication also features oral interviews and recollections of factory life by three main individuals, Zainab Mahmood, Nadia Florman and Lychee Lion.