Tourists arriving at Singapore are often greeted at the airport by teenagers… … studying. Whether it is at the aviation gallery, eateries like McDonalds, or empty corners of the airport, Changi Airport is home to students looking for somewhere quiet and comfortable to hit the books…
Out and about with nothing to read? Here’s five free reads you can pick up from shops, cafes, museums and libraries in Singapore.
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JUICEThis is the monthly guide to Singapore’s music and clubbing scene. Since it launched in 1998, JUICE has become an institution of local free street magazines. Each issue features news, reviews, and interviews with local and international musicians. There’s also a fashion spread. But, the perennial favourite has to be the ‘Scene’ section where you can check out who’s been out partying all night! Since June this year, JUICE has also published a special edition for sale at $4 that features extra content and exclusive promotions and offers.
WHERE TO FIND IT
Fashion stores, cafes and restaurants.
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I-S MagazineThe granddaddy of free street magazines in Singapore. I-S is a weekly that covers the entertainment and lifestyle scene in Singapore and has been around since 1995. The latest issue comes out every Friday, and is packed with listings of the latest exhibitions, art events, films and theatre productions. There is also a guide on where to eat and party. The soul of the magazine, however, is its features stories and interviews that sometimes cover the most current controversial issues with a cheeky touch. Another favourite is its OB Index, which charts the state of freedom of expression here Where do they get their sense of humour? The answer could be found it the advertisements of its classifieds section.
WHERE TO FIND IT
Most fashion stores, cafes and restaurants.
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BeMUSEWho says free stuff can’t come without puff? BeMUSE is a quarterly magazine started in 2007 that celebrates heritage (No, not a puff word for history!) with photos and essays about the latest museum exhibitions. It is published by Singapore’s National Heritage Board (NHB), which explains why its articles feature exhibitions from its museums. However, this is more than just a beautifully designed public relations guide – many of the articles are written by the exhibition curators themselves making it almost like attending a curator’s tour!
WHERE TO FIND IT
Museums and hotels.
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Kult MagazineHere’s one for those who don’t like to read: Kult is a quarterly that uses visual arts to explore social issues. Each issue, by the similarly named creative agency, features works from illustrators from all over the world and it has so far covered the themes of truth, artificiality and AIDS. Since the magazine started in 2009, Kult has challenged the notion of magazines by not only having a printed form but also adapting its content to fit an 80’s arcade machine and an interactive online edition. Read my earlier review here.
WHERE TO FIND IT
Design schools and cafes in town.
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For Singapore history buffs, this one’s for you. This is a quarterly journal of academic articles written by the librarians and the research fellows of the National Library Board. Since it started in 2005, BiblioAsia has published articles on lesser known topics of Singapore’s history — physical education, children literature, Malay scripts — making it an excellent resource for budding researchers. The articles also come with references that you can follow-up on at the library.
WHERE TO FIND IT
National Libraries
After doing some work recently involving the use of images of Singapore’s past, I’ve learnt that there are only three sources for old images: PICAS, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and personal collections.
PICAS is the Picture Archives Singapore Database run by the National Archives of Singapore (NAS) that contains some of the oldest photographs of Singapore. To buy a photo from the database is just as archaic. You cannot buy a photo online. Instead, you fill up a form and place your order at NAS itself, and return to collect the actual print. The only plus point is that you pay much less for a photo from PICAS, as compared to SPH, if you’re publishing for educational and cultural purposes.
While PICAS may have the oldest photographs, SPH has the most extensive collection of images of Singapore’s past. In fact, many images in the PICAS database actually belong to SPH. This means you have to deal with SPH and pay their rates if you want to use the SPH photos. Their extensive database is no surprise as SPH is a news organisation that covers all the important events of our nation’s lifetime. While it has an online SPH Photobank System, that database only carries current photos. To see all the old photos SPH has, you have to make an appointment to go down to their Information Resource Centre to search their internal servers.
The final resource for old images of Singapore is an emerging one thanks to the proliferation of digital imaging tools. People can now easily put up their personal collection of photographs and there are many gems out there waiting to be discovered. The National Library Board (NLB) is making an effort to canvass these photos and make them available via it’s Singapore National Album of Pictures (SNAP) website. It has also created a Flickr! set too. The only issue is with regards to their use. I have no idea if I can somehow obtain these photos for publishing. Another collection that exists online is Memories of Singapore, which is made up largely of photo collections from expatriates. Interestingly, the photos also give a glimpse of an expatriates’ life in Singapore in the past.
The problem with the current offerings of image databases is their poor quality and how there are so few of them. This limits the view of our colourful and diverse past, such that after a while, the same few ‘classic’ photos are reused to depict Singapore’s history. While SPH has built up the most extensive database, public access to it is troublesome, and the cost of use is prohibitive. PICAS is disappointing, and it could do so much better in terms of collection and the simple task of enabling online payment. I’m also a little puzzled as to why I wonder NLB is spearheading SNAP instead of NAS.
More importantly, I think there are a lack of image databases in Singapore and we’re depending too much on a few big institutions to document our lives. Especially nowadays, when there are so many event photographers and amateur photographers covering public life in Singapore. What is lacking are organisations and people who can amass these photographs, make sense of them, and make them available online so that future generations, and even you and I, can better remember what life is like today.
Amidst the grand plan for a global city called Singapore is the small neighbourhood of Tiong Bahru, a place I like to go home to one day.
This is a piece I recently contributed to the project Civic Life Tiong Bahru.
The magazine market with its quick turnaround and fierce competition has always been a fertile ground for creativity. This is a latest incarnation (ok, I’m a little late in discovering this) of a magazine: Kult’s ArtCade Machine — 3D Magazine. It merges a magazine with a 80’s arcade machine!
KULT
Kult, is a free printed quarterly magazine by a local creative agency of the same name that uses visual culture to explore issues of our society today. The ArtCade was created for its launch issue last year that explored the theme of “Trust”.
In its second issue, Kult looked at the “Artificial” and also created an interactive online version of its magazine. Unfortunately, it is offline currently. The magazine edited by Brendan Graham and art directed by Steve Lawler recently published its third issue, which features some 29 illustrations by artists from all around the world that looks at the health epidemic AIDS. Compared to the first two issues, which came in forms that explored new boundaries in magazine publishing, this is a little bit more regular, but still an interesting read.
KULT
Kult isn’t the first local magazine that devotes itself to use visual culture to explore issues. In fact, its art director Steve worked on the last issue of a now defunct local magazine FL.ag that runs on the same concept. Interestingly, the issue of FL.ag that Steve worked on also looked at AIDS and its cover image is the same one done by Austin Cowdall found inside this issue of Kult.
FL.ag
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