I shared with you the theme, highlights and showcases for Total Defence 2014 some months back. I’m not sure if you managed to make a trip down during the exhibitions but if you missed it, here are some snapshots of the exhibits while I was there.
I love that this year’s theme and exhibits were a lot more relatable to our daily lives. It’s hard for most of us to imagine contributing to the nation’s defence. In fact, before this, if anyone asked me to think about Total Defence for Singapore, my mind will naturally wander off to the military with their big guns and NS men.
The truth is that each one in our daily lives, doing what we do, is contributing to the success of Singapore and to the defence of our country. Our harmony, our support for each other, our perseverance in our jobs are the building blocks to keeping Singapore together and united as one.
It was nice and refreshing to hear the viewpoints of the everyday people and their thoughts on Total Defence. Their words throughly echoes the sentiments of the public and I enjoyed listening to their unscripted conversations.
My personal favourites were Alice, the taxi drive and Darshan, the student.
The minimalistic exhibit in the next hall done by The Thought Collective was the one that made the deepest impression on me as it addresses many current social issues that we face and many of the questions are the very same questions I’ve asked myself.
“Should I pursue my passions or follow a safer career path?” is one such question that I’m still struggling with. I’m at a crossroads to whether I should leave my comfy lifestyle and cushy job to take a chance at creating something new.
It was so fascinating just seeing real people people give their honest comments on both sides of the issue.
They also had kids read out some of the Facebook comments on current issues and it was an intriguing way to open your mind to the words being said when they were read out with the voices of these innocent children.
I just stood under the sound dome, reflecting on what was being said and how poignant the forthright comments felt to me.
After browsing through the various exhibits, I had the lovely opportunity to discuss my thoughts and feelings about current affairs, the Total Defence efforts and the displays with the people behind this project, including the campaign director, Kit Chan, over dinner.
I enjoyed the experiential concept of this year’s Total Defence direction and I hope I’ll be able to sign up for one of their unique though provoking dinners the next time.
Thanks for reading!
