Introduction
Novelty of factory labour
Productivity as a national concern
Asian values
Cleanliness
Consciousness and control
Network of operators
Flatted factories as sites of visions
Mass Psychogenic Illness
Industrial toxicities
How to handle hysterical factory workers
Sightings
Experiences of a friend
Gross National Distress
Directions for an instrument (project description)
1983 (project description)
Ballad of the graveyard shift (project description)
Highly infectious (project description)
Interpretations of an outbreak (project description)
Let the machines sweat/sing/sleep (project description)
I dream of surplus (project description)
Shrunken desires (project description)
Dear passenger (project description)
Graveyard shift girls(project proposal)
Bibliography & Acknowledgements
Dear passenger
This work is a short film that comprises still images throughout. In relation to subjectivity, this work is closest to my own. Through the use of fiction, I create a narrative centred around a factory worker who is sent overseas for training. Inspired by tales of workers from Rollei Singapore who were sent to Germany for training in the 1970s, this film attempts to look at how a globalised world shapes relations between local labour and the international employer. The main protagonist in the film also questions his relationship with productivity as he travels to a different part of the world. How does one view one’s value in a different context that is unfamiliar? The film also thinks about labour in relation to leisure. How does one experience leisure despite pressure to be productive? How can one fight for the right to leisure? Must leisure also be productive for the individual? These are some of the thoughts that inform this work.
The work is in collaboration with artists Zachary Chan and Malaz Usta. Zachary Chan is voicing the character and designing sound while Malaz Usta is creating 3D elements that complement the images.
