Extracting a Nation

Singapore today is a total work of art: a nation-state both culturally and materially constructed. It is sustained by a concerted governmental effort continually engaged in building ground (land ‘reclamation’), constructing the state (through the Housing Development Board), and designing the nation. 

The civic symbols that underpin the official national narrative—the flag, pledge, and anthem among others—are emblems of the prescribed social values that the country has been designed to aspire to: honest, multiracial, meritocratic, self-reliant progress. Noble as they are, these ideas do not describe the full extent of the nation. 

Operating within and independently of this designed framework for nationhood is the reality of life in this place: the artifacts and rituals borne out of living here. Should the energy to maintain the formal structure ever be lost, these local counter-cultures—the unshakable anchors of Singaporean nationality—will expand (and adapt) to structure the society.  

What would this world look like? 

Consider the ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ kitchen. This quirky cultural artifact of separating representative and functioning space is emblematic of a set of values that can be extrapolated to create a larger logic for spatial organisation. This in turn, can structure a society.

Similarly, Singlish—the local creole—can be spatialised. The language is a field of overlapping dialects. When inserted into the previous thought experiment, it suggests a field of overlapping territories: a model for new type of commons. 

Now, these sketches are quick and exploratory, but they can lead to a model of nationality that is grounded in the messy, fluid realities of living in a place. They promise a nationhood that is an ever re-forming function of locality, not an unwavering intellectual aspiration.