Dressed in a singlet and a pair of shorts, an old, wrinkled man clogging in the midst of the bustling Raffles Place MRT station, playing the harmonica while juggling. This was one of the opening scenes of Singapore Gaga (Tan, 2005). A few minutes into the documentary, internationally-acclaimed Margaret Leng Tan’s interview followed and subsequently, her wildly successful John Cage’s 4’33’’ performance on a toy piano in the void deck. Looking at these two isolated scenes together, they anchored the documentary as a montage of often neglected, unseen sonic landscapes of Singapore. Contrasting the two scenes, it also raises a question of music being a form of fine arts that shapes Singapore’s culture. Why is it that a western-educated Singaporean musician playing the piano in absolute silence is so readily acclaimed and deemed avant-garde, pushing the boundaries of arts? On the contrary, the man performing his version of harmonica while doing juggling acts is deemed as a nuisance of noise, let alone to be deemed as having any form of cultural value?

In the past two decades, Singapore has constantly been developing its arts and music scene. Through its Renaissance City plan (unveiled in 2000), Singapore has transformed from ‘a barren wasteland’ into a lively, dynamic art and music scene of Southeast Asia (Arts and Heritage Development Division, 2008).  In addition, what comes out of such comprehensive, big-thinking approach to nurturing cultural talents were iconic architectural projects like Esplanade – Theatre on the Bay for music and the National Gallery Singapore that hosts a vast collection of Southeast Asian arts (Arts and Heritage Development Division, 2008). These venues become the formal urban spaces for the propagation of Singapore’s culture. In recent years, state agencies also planned large-scale international events like the Singapore Biennale to promote international exchanges of art and music (Arts and Heritage Development Division, 2008). While this can be seen as a conscious effort to help budding artists and performers in Singapore to have a platform for cultural exchanges, Singapore’s cultural scene is very much planned and regulated with a top-down approach. In a way, the arts and music in Singapore are also commodified into mere products that contribute to Singapore’s economic growth and a tool to build national identity.

In contrast, informal expressions of arts and music seem to be not tolerated. Small acts of artistic, individualist expressions were often rejected by the state and as such, these acts were usually regulated or even censored. For instance, in 2012, Samantha Lo, aka the ‘Sticker Lady’, was pasting monochrome stickers with slogans like ‘Press Once can already la’ and ‘My grandfather road’ on street signs and pedestrian crossing (MacKinnon, 2012). This was taken to be vandalism, rather than being self-expression of art in the urbanized city. This intolerance is not only portrayed by the State, but also the general public. In Singapore Gaga, the harmonica performance by the uncle were either ignored by the fast-paced white collar workers or were frowned upon by public (Tan, 2005). His performance which he himself considered as a one-of-a-kind art that is of ‘national treasure’ status were more likely taken to be a disturbance. These little acts of self-expression that were happening away from the formal performance venues were often dismissed and/or overlooked by the State and the public.

Having said that, fortunately, the sheer fact of these examples also highlighted that in Singapore, we still have these self-expressions occurring. Despite the big-thinking planning Singapore has towards culture, we still see the manifestation of arts and music at a very personal level. These arts and musical forms though often unrecognized by formal organizations, they do exist and are increasing. These art and music forms are often people-led, self-made and seen at community level, usually away from the eyes of the State. For example, for several years, an uncle in Woodlands has been putting up festive decorations at his own cost as seen below in Figure 1. In Figure 2, another uncle in Yishun who wanted to beautify his void deck arranged an artistic tower of knick knacks and trinkets he collected over the years (eventually asked to be removed by town council) (Zaccheus, 2017). Therefore, it seems under the efficient planning of the State, the people has also started to reclaim the urban space for development of self-expressions, be it in art, music or cultural performances. Hence, it is possible to propagate the small, little things in this otherwise big city.

​