Singing Songs from an Overhead Bridge



Little Fella~

I cross overhead bridges almost daily in Singapore. For me, the two most important ones are the one right outside NUS Faculty of Engineering and another one outside the School of Design and Environment.

Somehow, over the years, the activity of crossing an overhead bridge has become more than just a way to get to the other side of the road. The bridge has gained a new meaning - a rather abstract and personal one - as a place for short daily contemplations. Sometimes, when I am lucky enough to cross the bridge early in the morning, I can hear the chirping of birds or the rustling of leaves from the adjacent Clementi Woods. A greater luck would let me catch a glimpse of a squirrel making a dash to its safe hideout. In the evenings, I would think about the stray cat, or secretly replay the tune of a familiar song. The song changes everyday.



Seikatsu-sha and the City

seikatsu-sha

I do not think of myself as someone who is well-traveled. Indeed, I am not. I have only traveled to a few places, most of which are quite conventional tourist destinations, and never done any solo traveling. Hence, this is not a travel blog. I am writing a blog about cities and urban life from the perspective of a person who lives there to work, to study, to play and to meet people. In Japanese, there is a word, "seikatsu-sha" (生活者), which is rather difficult to translate but it means something along the line of "a person who goes about living his/her daily life". Hmm, big deal? 

Highlighting Presence through Absence

"Spring for Nobody". Jan 2011.

"Not the Same Place". May 2011.

The Beginning of The Affair

"We treat space somewhat the way we treat sex. It is there but we don’t talk about it." 

~Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language

My fascination with the notion of space began when I was a freshman in university, attending a lecture on Geographic Information System. Yes, you got that right. It was a pretty technical module about recording and processing spatial information using computer software like ArcGIS and stuff, but that is not what I want to talk about. On our first lecture, the lecturer asked the class a question, "Who can tell me what is the difference between space and place?"

Silence befell the class.