Japan Media Festival

453fdjfaWER#@$#$34 I wrote this entry two days ago but was too lazy to post it up:

Just a short review of Japan Media Arts Festival and I hope it won't drag out for too long, as I'm really bored with myself right now.

JMAF - We went there and looked at things. But before that, we got lost and incurred about $17 worth of charges, including ERP. The world isn't fair. The museum we were going to is called '8Q' and what it stands for is apparently 8th Queen St. Seriously, please don't tell me that a normal conversation with your friend involves mentioning street names. o_o

ME: Hey, I'm going to NAFA. You know how to get there?
FRIEND: ...189655...
ME: Sorry, what?
FRIEND: 80 Bencoolen Street.
ME: Oh, I see. So what you're saying is that I have to get out of Bugis MRT Station, bypass Bugis Junction, walk along MidLink Plaza, cross 3 traffic lights and pause until I see Sunshine Plaza which is just across the street from Cheers and directly facing the school?
FRIEND: Exactly.

NO YOU DON'T SAY THAT. (Or at least I don't, which suggests that the average Singaporean, who takes for granted that he represents the average Singaporean, don't either.)

Instead, a normal conversation about directions usually goes like this:

ME: Hey, I'm going to NAFA. You know how to get there?
FRIEND: Err, let me think, I think it's near Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station.
ME: You think or are you sure?
FRIEND: You hang on ah. I call my boyfriend.
FRIEND'S BOYFRIEND: You hang on ah. I call my mother.
FRIEND'S BOYFRIEND'S MOTHER: You hang on ah. I call my friend.
FRIEND'S BOYFRIEND'S MOTHER'S FRIEND: You hang on ah. I call my sister.

1 hour later,

ME: Err, so what does your boyfriend's mother's friend's sister say?
FRIEND: She says that it's near MidLink Plaza.
ME: Which is where?
FRIEND: You know Waterloo St?
ME: No, I don't. And I don't know Bencoolen St and I don't know Victoria St and I don't know Queen St and if I do I won't be asking you for directions.
FRIEND: Okay, okay. Sorry. You know Bugis MRT right? You go out, you see Bugis Junction? Then I think you cross the street and go left. Then I think you will see a traffic light and you cross that one also. Then you walk a bit and I think you will see Midlink Plaza, and then I think you will see another traffic light so get over to the other side. I think that's very near Sunshine Plaza which is opposite Cheers. Then I think you walk straight until you see that, and across it I think you will see the school.
ME: Oh I see.
ME: I think you need help.


Exactly my point. Do you honestly think that the name will make sense to first-time visitors? Or that recurring visitors will actually remember its name?

WIFE: Honey, there's an exhibition at 8Q. Let's go.
HUSBAND: 8Q?
WIFE: We've been there before, have you forgotten? 8Q is the product of careful consideration and meticulous calculation of a visitor's convenience representing subtly its strategic geographical location at 8th Queen St.
HUSBAND: ...which is WHERE?

Apart from that, the JMAF was rather interesting. I wouldn't say extremely, but it was just like an other exhibitions that you can go to: displays of things that you've never seen before, in this case, games, animation, toys and some coolio-looking Jap tech stuff. Most of the exhibits there will actually wow you in terms of handiwork (detailed, mind-boggling stuff) or remind you that the Japanese enjoys pushing the boundaries of technology.

I am told, however, that the Singapore JMAF is actually at the tip of an iceberg, the real experience to be found only when you attend the massive one at Japan. A tempting proposal, one that I will attempt after winning the lottery.

I can't show you guys any pictures, because we weren't allowed to take them, but possibly you will find some of the exhibits rather exciting. Like the old manga prints of Hokusai, which is where manga originated from, some beautiful linework dating back to the ages which reminds me very much of Disney, and the 2-metre-long spreads of Nodame Cantabile. :)

The one exhibit that really unsettled me was, however, not found in the JMAF. It's located at level 3, if anyone wants to check it out, and it's part of an exhibition done by a group of Singaporean artists, which includes :phunkstudio.

The exhibit is titled and it's displayed in an entire room by itself.

When I entered the room, the first thing that hit me was the smell. I have gone to a number of exhibitions in the past, but never have I come across one that has a smell, and never one like this. It was a mixture of old wood and decomposing matter, or at least that was the first thing that came to my mind: death and decay.

The room was also very dark and very cold, and I felt at once a wave of nausea and fear.

There was a table in the middle of the room, the only place where light was shining on. I walked up to it, and saw on the table among other things: an old, cracked mirror and a pair of scissors - the kind that I would be tempted to pick up and scare my friends, if not for the fact that I was very freaked out myself. Because next to the scissors were photographs of dolls. Many, many dolls. Dolls with their faces broken, dolls with cracks running across their cheeks, dolls with empty eyes, sneering dolls, grinning dolls, dolls with disfigured faces...

If you still can't picture any of these dolls right now, go to Google and look up 'Chucky'.

When I was a kid, apart from Enid Blyton books, I loved dolls. When I went out with my mother, I begged for a Barbie. When I got A for my Chinese exam, I begged to be bought a doll. I've had dolls that were 1-m tall, and dolls that were 15-centimetre short, dolls that came with a playground, even a doll that my mother won at Las Vegas (ironically, with my birthdate). My favourites, however, were still my two porcelain dolls.

Now, the things is, I'm also an avid listener of ghost stories. Ghost stories, I believe, are the greatest ice breakers ever. You don't have to make room for small talk, don't have to feel awkward that you can't small talk, and when your new friend tells you a ghost story that scares off your pants, then the both of you can be scared off the pants together.

I know that dolls often play huge roles in horror stories. And I probably can guess why. It's because they are flat and lifeless no matter how you access them. It's because they look like humans, and humans are fearful of anything that look like them - especially something as cold and empty as a doll.

Now, I would go on describing to you what else there was in the exhibition (a small wardrobe, coffins and photographs of more dolls) but I think the effective thing would be to visit it yourself. You know what they say about a movie trailer don't you? It tells you the gist, but never the whole story.

So, go there yourself, and pretend that I'm not really too lazy to type anymore.