A continuing exploration of light in different places. As night falls, the world transforms into an entirely different place. Streets are lit with the glow of small artificial suns, giving us an intangible sense of security by allowing us to bask in the warmth of comforting light. We often overlook these tangible comforts that, almost seeming like they exist separate from our existence. We take them for granted and underestimate the extent of their impact.

Works such as lux (2021), Anxiety (v1) (2021) and Styroform (2021) would not have come into existence had I not returned to Singapore after continuous study (and a judgment call due to the COVID-19 pandemic). At the end of a research stint and the start of my graduate engineering program, I felt like my creative “well” had been severely drained of inspiration. A prolonged period back in Singapore, surrounded by the comforts of home and exposed to numerous forms of inspiration such as family, friends, familiar cultures, spaces and even foods, gave rise to the aforementioned works and explorations. As I completed lux (2021), I came to realize that that piece was not going to be a standalone artwork, but rather the catalyst for a new series of works.

This project is a work-in-progress. Inspired by the experiments and endeavors of lux (2021), I seek to uncover the world of light through various presentations. The walks through these spaces, wherever they may be (building, city, country), are meditative journeys through the artificially brightened night. Each journey is minimally pre-planned, with a minimum walk time of 30 minutes and no maximum. Occasionally I set an end goal, but rarely does it become the true ending of the walk. More often than not, it only denotes the halfway mark of the journey and will naturally morph into being a mere digit in the entire project. While on these walks, GPS coordinates are also recorded, giving me a memento of that particular time, through space and light. Thus far, the countries that I have been blessed to take these walks are Singapore and USA. I believe that in the near future, there will be opportunities to explore different cities, countries and continents through walks of light.

The few images displayed here show some of the journeys I have taken so far including maps, light intensity data and abstractions of data visualisation graphics. Through similar processing as lux (2021), I have delineated a total of 25 of these walks of light and animated versions can be found here.