Team Dude wins the 48 hour VR Hackathon!

July 9, 2017

vr_hackathon_winners_team_dude — Team Dude wins the 48hour French VR hackathon

We won the Wonda VR 48h VR South East Asia Hackathon with our immersive interactive 360 video project, LUMI. As the winning team, our project is also exhibited as part of the Human+ Show at ArtScrience Museum until the 15th October 2017.

You can go experience our project between 2:30pm to 4:30pm everyday at the HUMAN+ Show at the Museum. Why its only open for 2 hours? Its is because the installation requires gallery sitters to help you with the VR headsets.

About Our Project:
LUMI is an under-utilized robot room assistant. Although LUMI can perform 120 tasks, LUMI’s current user has disabled most of its functions and only uses it to turn the lights on and off.
This virtual reality experience addresses the relation of humans in a not-so distant future living with robot companions who act as extended tools performing our daily tasts. LUMI won the first prize of the South East Asia Hackathon

About LUMI:

The user plays as LUMI, an under-utilized robot room assistant. Although LUMI can perform 120 tasks, LUMI’s current user (played by yours truly) has disabled most of its functions and only use it to turn the lights on and off.

So basically, you play as an AI to turn my room lights on and off while creepily watching me in my room. You can choose to obey to me or not. For example: Turning the lights off while I’m having a shower will lead to a hilarious out-come of me coming out the shower with shampoo in my hair.

We shot everything in my room at home, which really saved us a tonne of time because we didn’t need to scout for locations or travel at all; we only had 48 hours from the start to the finish. I’m quite proud of what we done.

You can also go check it out on the Wonda VR app.

Welcome to my room! Wonda VR is the software used to create the interactivity with “hotspots” on our 360 video. The red Squares are the hotspots where users can look up and switch the lights on or off.

Our installation at the ArtScience Museum can be easy to miss, so here are some photographic directions to it.

Look out for this green corner of the Human+ show. It is only open 2:30pm to 4:30pm because they need someone to be there to help you with the headsets

Then turn to your left. My project is the one hanging on the left

Really skeletal exhibition set up. Perhaps it is relative to the small amount of time we took to complete the project.

LUMI
Charis Loke, Eugene Soh and Ng Kai Yuan
2017
Virtual Reality Experience
LUMI is an under-utilized robot room assistant. Although LUMI can perform 120 tasks, LUMI’s current user has disabled most of its functions and only uses it to turn the lights on and off.
This virtual reality experience addresses the relation of humans in a not-so distant future living with robot companions who act as extended tools performing our daily tasks. LUMI won the first prize of the South East Asia Hackathon

Jane Soh as shot by her brother

January 5, 2017

I made this video last month!

Dedicated to my younger sister, who has been chasing her harp dreams in Boston for three years now.
I was reminded of how much she was my muse when I stumbled upon all this footage while clearing my computer last week.
Hours of footage, filmed over the last 5 years in different countries. Perhaps from more naive, happy times and in some cases, silly for shooting in low-res lol (Memory cards were expensive!)
I had a hard time distilling all that footage. It is a poetic masterpiece of adoration in my eyes, it makes me cry for realzies.

To my sister: no matter what happens or what you might be going through in Trump land, know that I’ll always be proud of you! I feel like I’ve won the lottery of life to have grown up with a beautiful, kind and talented sister like you

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ENCOUNTER: Sea+ Triennale 2016 at National Gallery Indonesia

November 1, 2016

My Sunday Afternoon piece is hanging at Galeri Nasional Indonesia (National Gallery Indonesia) as part of their second Sea+ Triennale, ENCOUNTER: Art from Different Lands! The exhibition runs from 18th October to 10th November 2016 – so it is closing soon! (or if you are reading this later, already closed!) Don’t worry though, because I made a 360 walk-though video of the entire exhibition!

42 individual artists and 2 art duos were showing, mostly Indonesian artists. 33 Indonesian, 13 International. I was the only one from Singapore! #SgRepresent

The show was fun, one of the works is a video projection on a floor of the artist giving a lecture to dead people lol. (Photo from press release)

I shall tell the rest of the story with my photos, not very good photos though because my Samsung Note7 was banned on the flight to Jakarta. Samsung compensated me with a shitty Samsung Galaxy J Ace. Most of these photos were taken with my mum’s Note5. Photo quality still shys in comparison to the legendary exploding note7.

My work at the Sea+ Triennale in Jakarta — My recreation of Georges Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon at the Sea+ Triennale in Jakarta

Badrolhisham Tahir, Eugene Soh, Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich at Zoe and Neil's Inflatable Love Tank — Badrolhisham Tahir, Eugene Soh, Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich at Zoe and Neil’s Inflatable Love Tank

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10 Difficult Questions about God(s)

May 3, 2016

Last week, this badass video interview about my practice was published by Khoo Guo Xiang from The Pitching Room! It is the second of their 1:1 Art Documentary series. It covers my practice as an artist and also talks about my recent Second Coming series and how it opened up discussions for me.

I have been fortunate to have had many great conversations with open-minded theists, atheists and agnostics since the Second Coming exhibition with Chan Hampe Galleries. I thought I’d share some of our findings here.

1. Do God(s) or Supreme Beings exist?

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6

We are mostly past this question. Our general consensus is that we don’t know. No matter how we tried, we found no way of proving or disproving their existence.

Supreme beings could exist but they don’t necessarily care about us. They might care as much about us as we do the ant colony living in our kitchens.

To be specific – we agreed that we are discussing the Biblical God because we are most familiar with him: For some reason, he does not want to make his existence undoubtedly clear and that is his prerogative.

2. Why doesn’t he make his existence undoubtedly clear?

Jesus said, “Thomas, do you have faith because you have seen me? The people who have faith in me without seeing me are the ones who are really blessed!” John 20:29

We came up with several reasons, these are the most plausible/funny ones:

It is more exciting this way! DUH! It keeps us guessing.
He wants to filter out the faithful/gulible to worship him for eternity. The rest will be discarded and tortured forever! Critical thinkers will question everything and won’t be fun to hang with anyway lol
He is a scientist and we are his experiments. Which begs the question of “What is he testing?”, “Isn’t he all-knowing? He should already know the result. Why bother going through the theatrics?”
For reasons mere mortals will never understand.

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The Second Coming

February 29, 2016

The Last Christmas (2015) by Eugene Soh — The Last Christmas (2015) DILITE, Edition of 3 130 X 89 cm

The Second Coming

By Eugene Soh

18 Feb – 13 March 2016

“They also never say where he will come back, mah.”

The Second Coming is an imaginative exploration into the question: what if Jesus chose present-day Singapore as the land of his return? Referencing both prophetic and historical scenes recorded in the Bible, Eugene Soh updates the narratives surrounding the life and death of Jesus, whilst presenting his own meditations on the nature of religion and faith.

This exhibition explores the dynamics behind how religion is made meaningful in society. Founded on the understanding that the events in the Bible are not significant in and of themselves; rather, events draw their significance from their representation in the Bible. By re-creating these events photographically, this collection of images engage in re-presentation, commenting on the fluid nature of how these Biblical events and prophecies can be understood. This exhibition further invites audiences to explore the text of the Bible as one that is comprised of multiple versions of histories, viewpoints, and voices, raising the ultimate question about the nature of religion and faith.

Press/Interviews/Reviews:
Book Of Eugene by Marc Nair on Mackerel
Interview with TimeOut Singapore
Interview with Asia City SG
Motherships.sg’s feature
Review by Artitute

Videos:
Behind the scenes video by Michael
Bible Stories with Ethnically Accurate Jesus (Walking On Water)

1. The Second Coming (2016)

The Second Coming (2016) by Eugene Soh — “And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10-11
Jesus second descent here on Earth was quickly captured by many residents of Singapore. As the image circulates worldwide through various media channels, this photograph becomes the classic symbol of hope for a better world. The exact location that Jesus descended upon is listed as Jalan Kembangan, Singapore. While there is a lot of speculation as to why Jesus chose that area for his second coming, one of the most popular explanations is that Kembangan means ‘expansion’ in Malay, alluding to the expansion of Jesus’ influence.

2. New Testament 2.0 (2016)

New Testament 2.0 (2016) by Eugene Soh — During his second time here on Earth, Jesus attracted a following of people in Singapore. He co-ordinated the creation of a new Bible, which integrated videos and photos of his lunchtime sermons with the written word. The new Bible was made accessible over the Internet; however, many disbelievers (mostly comprised of people from other countries who did not have the chance to view Christ in the flesh) decried the Bible as a falsehood, claiming that it was an effort on the part of Singapore’s tourism authorities. Amidst the controversy, Jesus’ followers continually reaffirmed their faith online, displaying their solidarity.

3. The Last Christmas (2015)

4. Happy Birthday & Merry Christmas, Jesus (2016)

Happy Birthday & Merry Christmas, Jesus (2016) by Eugene Soh — The popularity of Jesus’ birthday is a recent phenomenon that had only occurred in the past 200 years; in the book Christmas in America, Restad notes that the traditions that we associate with celebrating the season, such as card-giving and tree-decorating, only developed in the 19th century. Moreover, the meanings of Christmas have also shifted somewhat, with the conflicting values of charity and consumption co-existing next to one another. Although Jesus was known to have despised commercial activity in consecrated contexts, his reactions towards Christmas celebrations are not known.

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How I became an accidental artist – Eugene Soh, TEDx talk Transcript

December 27, 2015

I graduated two years ago from an art school here (Nanyang Technological University). Yes, there is an art school here.

The_Last_Kopitiam_-Eugene_Soh_2010 — The Last Kopitiam (2010)

You know like, if someone goes to an art school, you think “Oh, he is going to be an Artist”. That wasn’t the case for NTU. Most of the graduates here end up going a non-artistic kind of route, they become designers or something skill based. I wasn’t any different, I was on track to becoming a programmer, a game programmer, in an arts school. So, how that happened, was because of this picture [The Last Supper image].

I am very glad that I had a lot of free time in NTU. Despite what you think and what art students will say, “Oh they have so many projects, oh this, oh that”. The truth is that we have tonnes of fun [Art school is the funnest school. There was a lot of free time because we could always bullshit our way through assignments that didn’t really interest us and still have a chance at an A.. the “Subjective & Contemporary” kind of assignments.] So, I did this piece in year one, outside of school.

Being open to opportunities

This was in collaboration with Campus Magazine, they are not affiliated with any school, their name is actually called “Campus” and they had a center fold page in the magazine.
They asked me, “Hey Eugene, you are a photographer right?” and I’m like “Yup”. “Do you want to fill it up with your work?” I was a freshman and had this attitude of opening my doors to opportunity, I said yes to everything. I said “Yes” and went to browse my portfolio of photography works.
I wasn’t impressed with myself. it was all like pictures of the shadow of the lamp post on the floor, I thought I was so deep! [Laughter] but those were not suitable for the center fold.

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