Method: Risograph printing and stop-motion I adopted “stop-motion animation using risograph printing,” a technique I have been experimentally producing independently since around 2019, as the visual expression method for this work. By handling the footage physically, I was able to introduce a level of flexibility that digital methods do not allow, such as using different types of paper for each scene, which was a major gain from this production. Concept: “Life during the COVID-19 pandemic” In Video Creators 100, which presents representative creators for each year, what kind of year was 2021? I set this theme because I wanted to preserve it as a visual record. One year has passed since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. I am writing this text on May 29, 2021. The third state of emergency, which was initially supposed to last two weeks, has been extended by about another month and a half. In 2021, the infectious disease is still spreading, and the new lifestyle has become more deeply rooted. I think it has become normal for many people to enjoy entertainment through a screen. While continuing to stay at home, meetings, live events, and drinking parties have all been replaced by monitors. The present is what keeps and extends our lives through the screen, and I condensed 2021 into a teaser video with the hope for the future—that one day COVID will subside and we will be able to go বাইরে outside again.

Flowers, trees, and animals found in Singapore and the surrounding region are rendered as digital art. This large-scale installation space consists of a dome approximately 15 meters high, along with bridges and corridors suspended within it. The total distance traveled by visitors from the entrance to the exit exceeds 170 meters. On the bridge suspended in the 15-meter-high dome, Singapore’s flowers bloom and change continuously over time, as an infinite cosmic space unfolds. After crossing the bridge suspended in the dome, where Singapore’s flowers cascade down, visitors enter a spiral corridor running along the outer wall: a vast, interactive forest inhabited by Singapore’s flora and fauna. As one proceeds through the corridor, the world shifts from morning to evening to night, and the dry and rainy seasons arrive in accordance with Singapore’s actual seasons. In the dome space that follows the corridor, when visitors approach the wall and stop, the ground emerges, trees grow, a forest takes shape, and animals appear. The work is continuously generated in real time by computer program. The image seen in this moment can never be seen again. In addition, by launching the dedicated app “Story of the Forest,” information about the animals that randomly appear in the forest is sent to the user’s smartphone, allowing them to create a personalized animal encyclopedia. By connecting a forest in which visitors sharing the same space can experience the work together with the smartphones individuals carry, the project explores the coexistence of shared emotional experience and learning.

I combined my 15-year-old self with my present self. A powerful world like the rock bands I admired at 15.