It was a hike up Mount Sophia Road but we finally made it to Old School for the CROSSCURRENTS: NEW MEDIA ART exhibition at Osage Gallery. We had our glasses of wine and were slightly tipsy which was perfect a proper experience of the ‘musical wheel’ by artist Kingsley Ng. It was like a merry-go-round except it was covered. As curious person steps onto the wheel, it senses the movement which then creates single light patterns on the roof/tepee of the installation. Oh and did we mention, the wheel turns, but ever so slightly that you don’t feel it. We spent the next few minutes staring at the lights and melodies also triggered by movement. It was a calming experience albeit slightly disorientating, which isn’t necessarily bad.

We stopped for a second to look at the mechanical ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’ by the same artist, which didn’t do much for us. It was pretty to look at but we were done in a second. Finally we made our way up two flights of stairs to check out Singaporean artist Zulkifle Mahmod’s ‘Sound work: Dancing with frequencies’. It was basically an empty school hall with plasma screens lined in a row. The steps of the auditorium has light sensors, when your body hits any of the sensors, they produce sounds and digitalised sound waves on the plasmas. I felt like I was a conductor of my own digital symphony, the novelty wore off and we made our exit.

On the whole, it was an interesting experience to see how Asian artists interpret their local traditional routines and landscapes with the use of modern technology and materials.