Loss of Communal Living in HDBs
CS2006 Final Project
Concept.
Communal spirit and neighbourly interaction are quickly becoming a thing of the past. In this project we explore how anti-social behaviour has physically manifested itself in the place we call home — Housing Development Board Estates (HDBs). We want to have our viewers look at these familiar scenes of our neighbourhood and break out of cognitive habituation, to consider whether or not they are comfortable with this level of coldness and hostility present in HDBs.
1. Neighbours.
This photo explores the idea of a gated community. HDB housing is premised on the communal interaction between neighbours, void of the exclusivity and isolation usually associated with condominiums and landed housing. Yet instead of embracing this communal living, residents choose to build their own gates on top of their already gated doors to protect their space and keep others out. The formation of such barriers is a physical manifestation of our comfort with seclusion and isolation. The intense blacks and shadows behind the two gates gives a gloomy and heavy feeling.
In the past, a passer-by can easily tell things about the people that live in the apartments by the things they have outside their houses. There might be religious symbols, shoes or even plants and signs to welcome visitors. These items can give hints about the people living behind the doors. However, keeping all of such items behind closed gates strips the apartment of the identity it used to have, leaving the exterior of our homes cold and hostile.
We chose to use black and white film to capture all 8 of our photos, in order to create a sense of nostalgia and pinning for a sense of community that is lost. The monotony of black and white strips away the distraction of colour, leaving bare the soullessness and coldness of anti-social HDB living.
2. Corridor.
The labels on the floor gives viewers information about the ethnicity of the residents in the HDB floor. Despite HDB’s Ethnic Integration Policy to promote racial integration and harmony by ensuring a balanced ethnic mix among the various ethnic communities living in public housing estates, there still exists some kind of unwillingness to interact and converse in our society. Doors are often closed and in extreme cases, people go to the extent of gating them.
We used a one point perspective, size and space and textural gradient to communicate depth here. We wanted to show the corridors as empty and the lack of interaction.While the corridors are lined with our racial classifications, all these labels have no meaning if people do not go out and interact and if neighbours do not talk to one another.
The black and white film gives this photo a distinct character. The de-professionalisation of using analog photography instead of digital, whilst initially aimed at making the photo seem more personal, is instead juxtaposed with the lifelessness and emotionlessness of this corridor.
3. Windows.
The window grills in this photo are denotative of prison bars by their resemblance, which brings a connotative idea of entrapment and confinement in our own homes. It challenges viewers to reflect on the metaphorical meaning of our homes behind gates (similar to prison cells), and how our self-inflicted confinement is a manifestation of our growing anti-social culture.
At first, the viewer is drawn to the girl in the photo due to that window frame being visually different (Gestalt’s theory of similarity), and follows her line of sight via graphic movement to contrast the empty window bars around her. To create visual interest and tension, the girl is off-center in an otherwise symmetrical picture. There seems to be a sense of longing and yearning, in the little girl, for some social interaction, from her hands clinging to the bars. The use of symmetry and overall balanced composition adds to the overall rigidity and restrictive feeling this photo has.
4. Void Deck Table.
The nature of tables at the void decks is inherently communal; The circular shape is inviting of conversation, while chessboard designs on the table are purposed at bringing neighbours together for social pastimes. Yet, we see this purpose being eroded as these tables become mere rest stops for residents to carry out their own activities, without regard for others sitting around them.
Although the father and daughter in the photo are facing each other, there is no interaction between them and instead their focus is purely concentrated on their handphones. We can even sense a little discomfort between the father, with his head bowed and hand cupping his forehead, and the daughter, whose body is tilted slightly away from her father, with the close proximity of having to share a table.
Low aperture creates a shallow depth of field, bringing the table and the father and daughter into a clearer focus, creating an unsettling feeling for the viewer, as the hostility and coldness between the two subjects become more apparent. This reflects a sad truth that anti-social behaviour is in fact intergenerational and not just present amongst youth. Parents too, are slowly losing their willingness to interact.
5. Why So Shy?
The lift lobby is where inter-neighbour mingling most commonly takes place, but the lack of interaction at the lift lobbies have led to stickers being pasted on the lift doors to encourage residents to interact with one another. Despite this, evident from the distance between the two girls and their disregard for the large Public Service Advertisement (PSA), we can see that it is, sadly, not working.
Using Gestalt’s theory of similarity, the two subjects are grouped together along with the silhouettes on the lift doors because of their similar positioning, and common fate. The fact that their backs are facing the camera, which renders them faceless like the silhouettes, adds to this effect. This similarity is intentional as well as essential, as it allows the subjects and the figures to exist in a paradigm. The subjects of the figure have a parallel relationship with the silhouettes on the lift doors; the figures can be replaced by the subjects, and the dialogue immediately becomes a commentary on the subjects themselves, reflecting an overall concern for the lack of interaction between neighbours living in HDB blocks.
6. No playing of football.
Signs like those at the top center of the image can be found at almost every void deck in singapore. No playing of football, no rollerblading, no indoor riding and no littering. We explore the irony of having such signs around as they did not stop anyone in the past, and today, as void decks today are increasingly becoming cold and empty it seems almost funny that the signs are still there when no one uses the void decks anymore. The walls of our void decks used to be covered with soccer ball stains, dirty, ugly, but indexical of interaction and activity. Void decks today are almost becoming too clean.
The signs contains iconic signs, where the symbols on the sign looks like the thing they are representing (i.e. the rollerblades looks like rollerblades, etc) so that we know what is being prohibited. This image, being a metonymic code, allow viewers to make mental associations from the collection of signs (girl walking home, restriction signs, relatively clean walls, etc) when seen as a whole to infer that such restrictions has led to HDB spaces being neglected as places for gathering. The asymmetric stairs and railings, and the movement of the person guides the viewer’s eyes towards the focus point of the photo which are the signs.
7. Play.
Playgrounds are symbolic of communal enjoyment and play. However, with much emphasis being placed on after-school tuition and extra-curricular activities, playgrounds have retreated into the background and are left empty these days , as opposed to when they used to be full of life. “Playing at the playground” is given a whole new meaning when we see the girl in the image playing with her phone at the playground instead of playing with the slides or with the boy in the photo. We then wonder if the playgrounds serves their purpose in bringing people together or even necessary today when children cease to use their features.
At first, the viewer’s eyes are drawn to the boy as he disrupts the lines formed across the bridge, creating visual interest. Then, our eyes will follow the form of the bridge and slide in the direction of the boy’s sight to the girl, and follow her line of sight to her phone. Through this intended graphic movement of our eyes, it’s sad when we realise how the entertainment and enjoyment derived from a tiny phone has replaced the pleasure and fun of the playground. The two children in the picture are shown to be distant from each other — both literally and figuratively, harking at the question: Is this trading of physical interaction for a virtual one going too far? Or should we embrace this as the future of our next generations?
8. Waiting.
Waiting areas have the most potential for interaction, but over the years we have mastered the ability to isolate ourselves from one another. Making eye contact with strangers has almost become a taboo, and we use every possible way to avoid looking at each other. We use our phones (or pretend to use our phones). We sit on opposite ends of the benches at the bus stops. We use our bags to create distance- a safety margin between us and people we do not know.
We made use of Gestalt’s theory of Common Fate in composing this photo. The two girls are seen and grouped by our brains as separate as they are looking in opposite directions, resolutely away from each other. The photo is also symmetrically balanced, giving a sense of rigidity to the image. Due to the lack of movement or striking asymmetry in the photo, our eyes are drawn to the centre, where the space between the two person is.
