Creative Writing (by Dr. Emmy Horstkamp)

8 March 2008, Saturday, 9.30 am to 5.30 pm
Agatha Room, Level 3, Toa Payoh Community Library

This one day creative writing workshop focuses on developing skills through theme-based activities that help writers to hone their abilities to write and express themselves in words.

Emmy Horstkamp is the owner of Sofia Verlag and a project manager for the Singapore Art Museum. Through her work in new media, Dr. Horstkamp acquired extensive experience advising professional and individual creatives on how to expand their creativity.  Having taught at several colleges and universities, Dr. Horstkamp encourages her students to actively develop their creativity and use it to pursue their life goals.

Emmy’s specialization is creative writing and the use of new media for marketing and branding.  Through the use of multi media methods, Dr. Horstkamp shows writers how to develop their ideas and explore different ways of using the written word.

TARGET AUDIENCE For aspiring writers and anyone interested in understanding the writing process (also suitable for students of upper secondary and above).

Cooperative Learning and Extensive Reading (by Dr. George Jacobs)

5 April 2008, Saturday, 10 am to 1 pm
Merpati Hall, Level 3, Geylang East Community Library

Some students are not very interested in reading. Others who do read, do not read challenging or varied books. To combat the problem, Dr. George Jacobs will introduce the basic principles of cooperative learning and present various extensive reading techniques that can be used in a variety of reading contexts.

DR. GEORGE JACOBS,, an education consultant based in Singapore, holds a doctorate in educational psychology from University of Hawaii at Manoa. His books include Learning Cooperative Learning Via Cooperative Learning (published by Kagan), The Teacher’s Sourcebook for Cooperative Learning (forthcoming from Corwin), and Successful Strategies for Extensive Reading (RELC). George has conducted workshops and courses on cooperative learning and reading in Asia and the United States. He is co-editor of the newsletter of the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education.

Book Publishing: Major Disruption Ahead!

10 March 2008, Monday, 6 – 7 pm
The Pod, Level 16, National Library Building, Victoria Street

Digital technologies, internet delivery and wireless communications will expand consumer options and enable entirely new business models between content and readers. Join Cyril Pereira for an insightful discussion on the relevance of publishing in the digital age. As publishing gets re-defined, will publishers still rule?

About Cyril Pereira:
Cyril Pereira is a compulsive buyer of books. His 21-year collection overflowed his apartment and he has been paying storage for a container load in Hong Kong since 2001.
Cyril served the South China Morning Post for 15 years as Director of Newspaper Operations. His technology leadership is well respected internationally.

His additional responsibility for the SCMP Family Bookshops while being publisher of Asia Magazine, taught him the sheer waste and low margins of the general consumer book trade.
He launched the Brunei Times newspaper in July last year and is currently advising the Myanmar government on reform of press.

Telesis is his independent consulting vehicle to help publishers grow while navigating digital disruptions.

Poetry Workshop by Cyril Wong

8 & 22 March 2008, Saturdays, 1-3:30 pm
The Substation

Cyril Wong will talk and discuss the expectations and controversies involved in creating and publishing poetry. There will be writing exercises, elaborations on style and imagery, as well as potential answers to such questions as Why publish? and Why should I care about what anyone thinks about my poetry? Participants will each write a poem in the class.

Cyril Wong is the author of several books of poetry and his work has been published in journals and anthologies around the world. He has won the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award for Literature and the Singapore Literature Prize. He edits the online literary journal, http://www.softblow.com

Trace: An installation art project by Susie Wong

• Co-presented by The Substation and Susie Wong.
• 9 – 19 January 2008
• The Substation Gallery
  45 Armenian Street
  Singapore 179936
• 6337 7535

The installation, comprising portraits, indicts the images of children, generally thought to be free from wounding or loss, with the apprehension of an impending absence.

The work attempts to capture that still moment, that one split second when it stretches into eternity. This is also when death sits between the moment of presence and absence, between the visible and the invisible. Through the act of tracing, Wong attempts to “connect the visible trace with the invisible thing, the absent thing…” (Calvino, Six Memos, 77)

Flat Earth Society 0.2 (Singapore)

• 31 January to 12 February
• The Substation Gallery
  45 Armenian Street
  Singapore 179936
• 6337 7535
• Free admission

Flat Earth Society is a collaborative exhibition by Hazel Lim (Singapore) and Alan Butler (Ireland) which has been funded by the Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF). The idea for this exhibition is based on a series of concepts, which stemmed from a symposium hosted by ASEF, in Paris 2003, loosely themed around the idea of the ‘globalization of contemporary art’. The initial premise for the project set out to investigate how parallels in communications, information technology and media systems in the East and West affect the styles, mediums and trends in contemporary art practice, thus, Flat Earth Society began to take a different shape, resulting in the two exhibitions taking place in Dublin (the Lab Gallery: Flat Earth Society 0.1) and Singapore (The Substation Gallery: Flat Earth Society 0.2) in January 2008. Rather than creating artworks that investigate the nature of globalization in contemporary art practices, Lim and Butler, have instead created a series of artworks which themselves are testament to these theories. The works on show in these two Flat Earth Society exhibitions investigate various ideas related to communication, consumerism, mass production and information control. The two artists have taken their own approach, not as Asian or European, but as artists who live in very similar societies on different sides of the planet.

First Take

• 7 January 2008, 8pm
• The Substation Theatre
  45 Armenian Street
  Singapore 179936
  http://www.substation.org/
• 6337 7535
• Free Admission

See Singapore’s future talents and their works at our monthly programme every first Monday of the month. Submissions are open all year-round for filmmakers. Go to our web to find out how! http://www.substation.org/whats_on/moving_images.

Film Speak

• 9 January 2008, 7pm to 8pm
• The Substation Theatre
  45 Armenian Street
  Singapore 179936
  http://www.substation.org/
• 6337 7535
• Co-presented with The Substation Moving Images
  Part of the Speak Good English Movement
  

For some of us who are familiar with local films, we know that they are a colourful mix of stories in various languages. What is it like making films in Singapore and bringing them to festivals around the world? How would filmmakers discuss their films with an international audience? How about at home in Singapore? Join Associate Filmmakers from The Substation, like Lionel Chok, Kelvin Sng, Kan Lume and Jeremy Sing as they attempt to answer these questions by sharing their films and experiences with us in this special series.

Pondok 2000

• Presented by Teater Ekamatra
  
  21-23 December 2007, 8pm
• The Substation Theatre
  45 Armenian Street
  Singapore 179936
  http://www.substation.org/
• 6337 7535

The pondok (or ‘hut school’) is the earliest known form of a school designed to transmit Islamic teachings to its students. For Pondok 2000, Teater Ekamatra will present 6 performances and 2 installations that explore the relationship between Islam and performance. Curated by Alfian Saat, the project will explore the themes: Islam and modernity, de-stereotyping Muslims, traditionalism and reformism, and the interactions between religion and culture.

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Some Girl(s) By Neil Labute

• 4 and 6 January 2008, 7:30pm
  Presented by ACSian Theatre
• Admission: $15, free seating
  Enquiries: please contact Geetha on 9734 7098 or Su Yee on 9105 3535

Some Girl(s) by ACSian Theatre and Alumni offers a rare opportunity to examine the inner workings of the minds of men and women as they live out modern love affairs. Sentimental, melancholic, ironic, caustic and bitter sweet at times, Some Girls(s) is a window into the soul and is about why we love, live and leave. (Drama)

Stasis Ten

• 5 January 2008, 2 – 11 pm
• The Substation Theatre
  45 Armenian Street
  Singapore 179936
  http://www.substation.org/
• 6337 7535
• Admission: $10 presale or $12 at the door. Please contact Iliyas on 9829 6911 or email omslovesyou@gmail.com for ticket sales and enquiries

The Stasis series has been an old stalwart of the local music scene and is currently in its tenth and final iteration. Stasis promises a feast of musical acts, ranging from perennial favourites to fresh newcomers, and caters to all genres to suit any palette be it indie, punk, alternative or just straight-up rock. Join us in this curtain call for one of Singapore’s longest running series of gigs that will be a day (and night!) of great music, great company and great memories.

Colours of Dance – A Celebration

• Presented by Centre Stage School of the Arts
  19 January, 3 pm
  20 January, 11 am
  
• The Substation Theatre
  45 Armenian Street
  Singapore 179936
  http://www.substation.org/
• 6337 7535
• Admission: free
  For enquiries please call Peter on 9843 0474
  

A celebration of tap and jazz routines presented by the students of Centre Stage School of the Arts.

Exercises in Happiness

• Co-presented by The Substation and M1 Singapore Fringe Festival.
• 23 – 27 January, 4pm and 7pm
  26 – 27 January, an additional performance at 2pm
  25 January, 8:30pm, artist talk
  
• The Substation Gallery
  45 Armenian Street
  Singapore 179936
• 6337 7535
• Free admission

Happiness often happens in the spaces between things, between friends, between wars, between the inside and outside, between occasions in history. And while we strive for happiness, it eludes us; its history is always being re-written, slipping through our collective and subjective understanding of events.

Exercises in Happiness is a performance installation involving the audience in activities designed around happiness, to deliver short reflections on hope, history and collective optimism.

In increasingly uncertain times, Exercises in Happiness explores our restless need for a good feeling. Through these tasks, actions and conversations, we experience little crises of happiness.

Supported by the Australian High Commission.

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None for this issue

Batik Painting Workshop

• 7 – 28 January 2008, 7 – 9 pm
  Instructor: Ika Zahri
• The Substation
  45 Armenian Street
  http://www.substation.org
• 6337 7535
• Course fee: $120 for 4 sessions plus $40 for materials

Our instructor, Mr Ika Zahri studied batik with his father, Sarkasi Tzee, a respected batik artist in Singapore. Ika’s works have been exhibited in the Inspiration art exhibition held at The Substation, New York Art Expo held in New York and in the first Mendaki Charity exhibition. Trained in batik at a young age, Ika is now one of the most respected Batik artists in Singapore.

To register for our courses, you may do so at The Substation Box Office (12-8pm, weekdays only) or call Chris at 6337 7800 or email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For more information: http://www.substation.org/courses

Explore Singapore with your lens!

• 12 January 2008, 9-10.30am
  19 January – 8 March, 8-11am
  15 March 2008, 9-12pm
  
  Instructor: Lim Seng Tiong
  
• Course fee: $150

This is an outdoor photography class for advanced beginner to intermediate photographers. Students will get a basic understanding of outdoor photography, composition, using natural light and technical fundamentals. Additionally, students will have the opportunity for hands-on learning and feedback with 7 outdoor photo shoot sessions which cover the following topics:

**Students must have use of either a digital or film camera, preferably with manual controls such as an SLR (Single lens reflex, with interchangeable lenses). Students must provide their own film if shooting a film camera. A tripod is also recommended, but is not a necessity. Students are also responsible for bringing appropriate clothing and gear for outdoor photography sessions and for transportation to the lectures and the outings.

Mr. Lim Seng Tiong is an experienced photographer who has mastered the art of capturing moments of life in split seconds. Devoted to his craft, he has participated in numerous exhibitions and contests and has won many prestigious awards. He was a senior photographer with The Straits Times for many years.
To register for our courses, you may do so at The Substation Box Office (12-8pm, weekdays only) or call Chris at 6337 7800 or email at chris@substation.org
For more information: http://www.substation.org/courses

Hollywood Film Institute’s 2-Day Film School (Dov Simens’ 2-Day Film School)

• 19 and 20 January 2008, 9am to 6pm
• SPRING, Singapore – 2 Bukit Merah Central
  Regular Registration: $395 via gatecrash.com.sg
  Friends of The Substation: $325 (Please use password – SUB179 – when you register)
  For course information log onto http://www.filmmakingnow.com
  Presented by Sidetrek Productions
  

“INSPIRATION! Why waste 4 years at a film school? I got Dov’s Film School, shot ‘Reservoir Dogs’ [and] ‘Pulp Fiction,’ and launched my career as a writer who controls his scripts.” - Quentin Tarantino.
Dov Simens’ 2-Day Film School has launched thousands of successful film careers, and many careers of today’s new generation of filmmakers, such as Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, Guy Ritchie, Will Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Christopher Nolan, Kirk Jones and more. Whether your budget is US$5000, US$500,000 or US$5,000,000, in 2 days you will understand how to obtain or write a screenplay, how to successfully finance, produce, direct, and distribute your first feature film around the globe. Limited Seating. Register early to avoid disappointment.

STENCIL GRAFFITI WORKSHOP Get creative with Tagger (6 sessions)

• 2 February - 8 March, 2:30pm-5:30pm
• The Substation
  45 Armenian Street
  http://www.substation.org
• 6337 7535
• Course Fee: $170 (inclusive of materials: $30)
  * Registrants will receive a 20% discount voucher for Tagger Bags
  

Instructor: Zul (Zero)
Suitable For: Street Culture Creatives

With its roots embedded in political and propaganda art, stencil art has come of age to be where it is now. Being represented aptly by acclaimed artists like Banksy and others, stencil art has found its way into the hearts and minds of youths for its DIY aesthetics and urban affiliation. This new workshop introduces stencil making and printing as an artform. Workshop participants will get an opportunity to create their own stencils, from basic 1 layered stencils to multi-layered coloured stencils. From Tagger Bag flaps to spraypaints to ply-wood in this workshop the multiple ways of creating stencilart will be explored.

The best designed Tagger Flap will be displayed at Tagger Bags retail shop (VivoCity #02-62, 1 Harbourfront Walk).

Zul also known as ZERO is a member of the urban arts collective ARTVSTS- art activist. ZERO’S main artwork revolves around street culture, graffiti art, street art and the urban landscape. ZERO has been involved in numerous events and exhibitions and has been an integral part in the growth of ARTVSTS collective since its formation in late 2003.  He was a shortlisted candidate for President’s Young Artist Awards 2005. Currently a committee member of the Singapore Graffiti Artist Bench, a newly formed graffiti art organization endorsed by National Youth Council. A practising artist, ZERO is currently pursuing a Degree In Fine Arts (Hons) at Lasalle SIA College of the Arts.

*Kindly supported by Tagger
To register for our courses, you may do so at The Substation Box Office (12-8pm, weekdays only) or call Chris at 6337 7800 or email at chris@substation.org
For more information: http://www.substation.org/courses