Central Library at the National Library Building - Programme Room 1 (Basement 1)
02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Free Admission
About the Programme
With algorithms, feeds and Big Tech platforms, has our experience of the Internet gotten worse?
As the Internet becomes increasingly homogenised, discover what the handmade web is. In this session of Beyond Text, learn how creators reclaim digital spaces today by building personal websites or making innovative use of readily available platforms, and how these alternative subcultures and visions of the Internet give space for self-expression and authentic connection.
Discover how coding, independent platforms and Internet subcultures give us the tools for self-expression and connectivity to reclaim our own vibrant corners of the Internet.
About the Speakers
Christine Chong (moderator)
Christine Chong is the head of Tusitala, a Singapore-based digital storytelling studio that creates novel literary experiences with creative technology. She previously worked as an editor at NUS Press and in arts management at the National Arts Council, and served on the executive committee of the Singapore Book Publishers Association (2021–24). She is a co-founder of Books&, a collective supporting collaboration in Singapore’s publishing ecosystem, and an organiser with Creative Tech SG, an interdisciplinary community of makers, creators, and supporters based in Singapore.
Rafi Abdullah (speaker)
Rafi Abdullah is a curator and writer whose area of interests lie in contemporary art and its relations to the politics of aesthetics. More recently, he has been focused particularly on emerging technologies and its implications and affects on surrounding digital (and offline) cultures as well as on society at large. He was most recently a curator at the ArtScience Museum and at present continues to practice independently in Singapore.
Amalina Lai (speaker)
Amalina is a physicist by day and a self-proclaimed artist by night. Having spent much of her adolescence stumbling upon various quirky personal websites and staying up late to personalize her own blog, she dreams of reuniting with the same sort of wonderment she had as a pre-teen surfing the web before social media. These days, she maintains her own corner of the internet, sharing parts of her life and creative endeavours through woven snippets of HTML code. She hopes to share the joy of crafting a home for oneself in the landscape of today's internet.
About Beyond Text
Explore Beyond Text, an NLB literary arts series that explores new and visual ways of storytelling. Discover how creators and industry professionals tell stories on wellness, sustainability, and digital topics through web design, coding, Internet subcultures and more.