Imagining alternative ways for long-term engagement in

neighbourhoods.

Introduction
When approached with this prompt, I reviewed OH!’s past programming and objectives while
looking at the unique position OH! has in engaging with neighbourhoods. Through it the Kueh Lapis
Philosophy was developed as a flexible and adaptive framework that may be applied to any
neighbourhood.

Objectives
The Kueh Lapis Philosophy
After examining the question, I felt that there needed to be a flexible and overarching objective that
could both allow for the contingencies for such a parameter but was also focused on long term and
meaningful engagement. While it is not directly alternative, it functions as the basis to create a
system that has the potential to produce meaningful and unique alternatives. The two core
components of this philosophy are knowledge production and buildability.

Knowledge production
Having a diverse pool and production of knowledge allows for the foundation for a unique
art creation and engagement. Like the different colour of each layer of a kueh lapis,
knowledge production is as equally about building a diverse range of information. While the
variation of colours differs from kueh to kueh, they are always seen as a whole. While
different, this component of knowledge production functions in a similar manner that values
unique perspectives and produces a wide but telling array of knowledge that contributes to
a whole. What is referred to here as knowledge production can vary from what is traditional
research - historical, oral accounts and interviews - but also unique and new means of
epistemology such as heat maps, data analysis, applying migration patterns to kopitiam
crowds or analysing the linguistic changes within a community.

As an objective I believe that knowledge production is important as a key foundation both in

its initial research but also in the way works can be engaged. The works themselves while
being built off research should function as vessels of information and be treated from as a
means of epistemology.

Buildability
That leads me to the second component of this philosophy, buildability. Like the stacking of
kueh lapis, it is a layered process, with each kueh lapis being buildable from anywhere
between two to hundreds of layers. It is a framework that actively denies the creation of
dead knowledge and allows for the circulation of information, inspiration and ideas. It is in
itself a framework that allows the stacking, paralleling and integration of different mediums
within the same structure.
 Furthermore, the concept of buildability when applied to OH!’s objective of telling stories
helps to extend a sense of narrative. While OH! explores stories untold, in the long-term it
might be worth to revisit and build upon past narratives either through a fresh perspective
or by expanding the timeline; looking what came before and after.

PROGRAMME
With the Kueh Lapis Philosophy in mind, the following programmes have been constructed in a way
that are meant to be executed in relation to each other. Each one of them serves a purpose and an
objective, but collective depend on each other to be greater than the sum of their parts.

YAR (Yearly Art Review)

YAR or the Yearly Art Review functions similarly to the traditional OH! Open House neighbourhood
tours. However, in relation to the other programmes and a long-term setting, its purpose would be
amplified.
Anchor Programme
Here more than ever, within a long-term engagement, is a yearly art exhibition more
important. Unlike the yearly engagements OH! Open House has in neighbourhoods in the
past, this programme now functions as an annual anchor to the other programmes and
serves to tie the marketing and research around it. As the duration of engagement lengthens
it serves as a powerful anchor to conclude and close specific points or narratives and themes
within the programme while also serving to redirect the future agenda of its coming years.

Acts as a Revaluation
Additionally, as an annual programme, it also serves as a mode of revaluation. A check and
balance where OH! Open House is held accountable to both the community and the viewers.
It is a useful way not only to overview a year’s worth of research and art creation, but a way
to spot vacancies, to gather opinions and to re-evaluate the future.

Resident Kaypoh
The Resident Kaypoh functions to be the research arm of the Kueh Lapis Philosophy. Like the role of
a researcher, the Resident Kaypoh but is granted the autonomy and flexibility to function outside of
OH! Open House’s research team.

Possible Resident Kaypohs: Post-Museum, Zarina Muhammad, Shawn Chua.

Flexibility and Accessibility
While the Kaypoh would be given access to OH!’s internal research team, what sets their
research apart is their unique perspective or methodology and autonomy to weave into the
community at large. While a research arm, it is also a position that is also slightly more
informal and with it the ability to permeate into spaces where OH! might have failed to pick
up upon or its presence might be greeted with caution.

Buildability as Objective
Resident Kaypoh should bring to the table isn’t a specific conclusion per se, but a perspective
 and unique means and mode of knowledge production. While the expertise does not
necessarily need to lie squarely within the realm of a traditional research, the position
should not be outcome orientated, but always focused on building a network of information
that artists and future Resident Kaypoh’s can access.

Curious Citizens Platform

While the Resident Kaypoh functions as a research arm, the Curious Citizen Platform acts as its
experimental arm. In parallel to YAR, this platform should be given the permeability for artists and
curators to test out particularly uncertain ideas – be it logistically or conceptually.
Testing Ground for All
The benefit of this platform is that is a testing ground that extends beyond the artwork itself.
It can function as a testbed for marketing, an attempt at reaching out for access to spaces or
an outreach to the residents themselves. This platform benefits a long-term engagement as
it acts as both an informal and experimental space for the limitations of both the artwork
and its reach.

Pushing Limitation
Furthermore, the hopes are that this platform allows for the understanding of the
limitations of the neighbourhood. It would serve as a productive litmus test for the contours
of pushing YAR. Furthermore, it also hopes to spurs a level of curiosity in artists to engage in
neighbourhoods in an experimental manner. On one hand it can function as a research lab
to testbed their ideas, but also as a potential to push or reflect upon the future of their
practice.

After-Art Trail
Given that the three programmes before have the capability and reach to produce an immense
amount of information and artwork, the After-Art Trail seeks to be a soft programme that attempts
to disseminate and integrate much of these works into the neighbourhood themselves.

Possible Examples: A coffee shop adopting ceramic mugs, a Mama store displaying sculptures or a
video work playing on the screens of a food court.
Dissemination and Integration
One of main concerns is the failure of integrating the works or events into the communities
that they engage with. And one way to deal with this is through attempting to incorporate
the existing works from the programmes such as YAR, and the Curious Citizen into the
spaces which birthed them. The concern of this programme is not to create new work
specifically, but to identify the potential in existing works produced and to modify them for
integration into the community at large.

Ownership and Accountability

Another reason for this isn’t just to extend the longevity and possible engagement with the
work, but also to slowly get the community to take ownership of these works with pride.
What is important is what happens after OH! Open House leaves a space, who takes
responsibility and ownership for the work? Instead of yielding it to any organization, I think
 it should be important to disperse the responsibility throughout the community to various
actors and stakeholders, holding them accountable but also allowing them to feel that have
a stake in this process.

Redefining the Contours of Public Art

Lastly, this programme is in direct opposition to the discourse around public art and its many
missed opportunities in understanding its potential. While I refrain from boxing this
programme for works that are exclusively public, I do hope that this programme pushes
people’s understanding of what public art could be. Beyond the grandiose and stagnant
monuments scattered around a community, isn’t is more powerful when it is quieter, but
more indelible?

5 Year Timeline
While the programmes themselves are already useful ways of approaching the neighbourhoods, it is
also important to see their relevancy in different stages of a long-term engagement.

Phase 0 (2- 4 months)

This phase is a prelude and functions more as a feasibility test to any neighbourhoods one might
enter. Given the duration and ambition of the project, it is worth while to dedicate a number of
months to identifying a large enough neighbourhood – both in size and in interest – that is viable for
a sustained engagement. While all neighbourhoods have their stories, some just have more complex
ones than others.

Phase 1 (5 – 14 months)
Programmes include: YAR and Resident Kaypoh

Phase 1 will be the initial launch into the neighbourhood itself. As the initial push, on the surface it
will seem like any other traditional OH! Open House intervention. However, behind the scenes it
would be more of a strategic entering into the neighbourhood. It will be an important push into the
community and as such not all the programmes should be initiated so quickly in this first phase. Its
focus should be growing its roots into the community as wide and deep as possible.

Phase 2 (2 – 4 years)
Programmes include: YAR, Resident Kaypoh, Curious Citizens and After-Art Trail

It is in Phase 2 where the main bulk of the programmes will be launched. The initial foundation that
Phase 1 has built would allow for a more precise execution of the Curious Citizens Platform and
locations for the After-Art Trail. This is where the four programmes will start to take shape as the
separate arms that contribute to the long-term engagement. And through it a sustained and
interconnected meaningful connection.

Phase 3 (5 years >)

Programmes include: After-Art Trail and beyond.

At the 5 year mark, it will enter Phase 3. This is the final stage where a re-evaluation is needed. If
OH! is to stay, does the programme refresh itself? Should a more permanent space be constructed?
And if OH! is to leave, where does all the built art and information go to? Does it take the form of a
digital archive, a physical library or a publication? What is to become of the After-Art Trail? Has
ownership been successful or a failure?
Annual Timeline
While the 5-year timeline serves as a larger overview, it is also worth noting specific key-dates within
the one-year timeline. Below is a suggestion of how to pace the four programmes in such a way to
maximise funding, education outreach, viewership and engagement.

January (SAW Funding for Curious Citizen Platform)

Given the SAW funding and publicity in January, it is ideal to host works from the Curious Citizen
Platform. Given its experimental nature, it can generate interest both from NAC and from the public
in its unique framework and engagement of its art. Furthermore, given that most of the works in
Curious Citizen Platform are likely to be one off engagements, it will benefit from the SAW grants the
most.

March (Design Week Funding for Resident Kaypoh or Curious Citizen Platform)
In March, it might be useful to tap into the Design Week Funding. Given a long-term engagement
with any neighbourhood, working with its design elements would be inevitable. This would be
applicable depending on the nature of research for the Curious Citizen or the Resident Kaypoh.
Design-based interventions for Curious Citizen will benefit from both the publicity and hopefully the
funding from Design Week. Additionally, where applicable, the Resident Kaypoh may have the
opportunity to present part of his research during Design Week to further the reach and applicability
of its knowledge production.

June (School Holidays for YAR)

It is highly suggested to programme YAR for June as it intersects directly with school holidays.
Furthermore, it is on the tail end of most polytechnic and university holidays, which maybe useful in
maximizing interns and volunteers during this period. Furthermore, if YAR extends into the first
week of July, there may be possibilities to engage with the schools as an education engagement.