Directions for an instrument
performance + research through film
For this project, I chose to begin from a position of vulnerability. This is realised by placing myself before the camera to perform scenes derived from a mass psychogenic event involving individuals that crudely match my own demographic background. This "micro-project" is centred around a 1957 mass psychogenic event in Singapore, which primarily affected Chinese males who—driven by acute sociocultural anxieties—believed their penises was physically retracting. This event occurred before Singapore’s pivotal transition into its industrial phase and the factory-based MPI incidents of 1973.
I invite collaborators to select a motif from the list below; following a shared dialogue, the collaborator directs me in a recorded scene based on their interpretation. Through this act of self-experimentation, I aim to deepen my understanding of performance in front of the lens. By experiencing the vulnerability of the subject firsthand, I hope to cultivate a more rigorous sensitivity when collaborating on my primary research.
This trajectory explicitly challenges the misconception that Mass Psychogenic Illness is a gendered affliction exclusive to the female psyche. By voluntarily becoming a subject and serving a vision other than my own, I am attempting to subvert the traditional hierarchies of film production.
In this space, my subjective self is reflected back to me with a dual clarity: I am confronted by both my own self-perception and the external perception of the director. This is a deliberate attempt to transform "vision" into a shared concept, breaking away from the traditional filmmaker’s experience where a singular vision is enforced above all else.
