The Curious Collective
Fostering symbiotic relationships between humans and nature
Community Fieldwork: Marine Terrace
Curious Crafters: From Scrap to Spark is a two-part community engagement project that combines fieldwork with a hands-on library programme. Rooted in the Marine Terrace neighbourhood, the project began with conversations and storytelling sessions with local residents, uncovering personal memories and insights connected to the area’s history and environment. These narratives informed a participatory workshop at Bedok Public Library, where participants transformed found and discarded materials into meaningful creations. The project aimed to spark dialogue around sustainability, memory, and the often-overlooked value of what we typically see as ‘trash.’
Co-Designing with Elders
As part of the fieldwork, we worked with selected elders from the Marine Terrace community to co-create around the theme of Climate Futures. Each elder participated in an interview, sharing details about their daily routines, activities within and outside the neighbourhood, and aspects of daily life they looked forward to. The information gathered helped inform the project's direction and shaped the development of community-based responses to environmental and social themes.
Genius Loci: The Spirit of Place
During our visit to Ash’s home, he shared his philosophy of living through Genius Loci, or the “spirit of place.” Rooted in ancient Roman thought, it is the belief that every place carries its own character, shaped by memory, environment, and lived experiences. For Ash, this philosophy was not just a design concept, but something embodied in the way he crafted his home as a space deeply connected to its surroundings, emotions, and the people within it.
Ash Yeo showing us around his apartment, introducing his way of living in relation to nature.
Prototyping
Building from our fieldwork insights, we tested a series of prototypes using collected objects washed up along the shores of East Coast Park, just south of Marine Terrace, reenacting the participant experience of creating with found materials. As part of this process, we sorted and classified the objects according to their physical properties, helping us identify their material characteristics and how they might shape creative interpretation.
Curious Crafters: From Scrap to Spark
Born from our fieldwork experiences, Curious Crafters: From Scrap to Spark was an intergenerational art programme developed in collaboration with the National Library Board (NLB), inviting participants to reconsider the perceived value of waste. Using found beach objects collected from East Coast Park that would often be dismissed as trash just south of Marine Terrace, participants transformed these discarded fragments into meaningful artworks that reflect the stories, history, and heritage of the neighbourhood. Through this shift in perspective, the programme fostered deeper emotional and environmental connections between people and the places they inhabit.
The workshop began with an art-style display of these found materials, arranged like a small exhibition to spark curiosity and invite participants into a moment of exploration. Each object was accompanied by a short story inspired by its physical properties and characteristics, encouraging participants to interact with the materials, imagine their histories, and consider their significance before selecting five objects that resonated with them as the starting point for their creative process.
Building Stories
Themed prompts served as a starting point for collective making, encouraging participants to reflect on the relevance of their chosen found objects to the shared theme.
Prompt Cards and tessellating for participants to build their creations on
Creating a Collective
Once each participant completed their creation, the individual plates were brought together to form a collective work, signifying the shift from individual expression to communal making. From there, participants were invited to share the stories behind their creations, using them as conversation starters that sparked dialogue, exchanged ideas, and opened space for different interpretations between one another.