Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Master Narrative and the Lived City – Half a Century of Imagining Singapore
- Part I (De)-Constructing Master Narratives of the City
- Part II The Arts as Prisms of the Urban Imaginative
- Part III The City Possible in Action
- Conclusion
- Index
- Publications
10 - Mediating Community in Bukit Brown
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Master Narrative and the Lived City – Half a Century of Imagining Singapore
- Part I (De)-Constructing Master Narratives of the City
- Part II The Arts as Prisms of the Urban Imaginative
- Part III The City Possible in Action
- Conclusion
- Index
- Publications
Summary
Abstract
This chapter seeks to illustrate the authors’ initiative of deploying mobile communication technologies through the ‘iBBC’ app to locate and reference tombstones of prominent historical personalities in Singapore's Bukit Brown Cemetery. The densely vegetated, 80-year-old former Chinese municipal cemetery filled with more than a hundred thousand graves has been largely neglected, and the traditional Chinese inscriptions written on many of the tombstones are inscrutable to many contemporary visitors. As part of the process of digital interventions, iBBC helps visitors obtain encyclopedic information immediately on-site by using Augmented Reality (AR) to recognize selected tomb monuments. Such interventions are critical in sensitizing the public to the cemetery's cultural heritage.
Keywords: digital heritage, Augmented Reality (AR), computer-mediated community, heritage engagement, Bukit Brown Cemetery
Introduction: Locating Bukit Brown Cemetery
A municipal cemetery established in colonial Singapore for the ethnic Chinese community almost a century ago, Bukit Brown Cemetery has been the final resting place for a number of prominent Chinese community leaders and public personalities. With the passing of time, public knowledge of the location of these sites was gradually lost as tropical jungle reclaimed the premises. On 18 November 2017, the Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) launched the Bukit Brown Wayfinder Trail to direct users to some of the more prominent ethnic Chinese community leaders and public personalities buried at the Bukit Brown Cemetery. Before the development of the WayFinder Trail, there have been several attempts to support the effort to save Bukit Brown Cemetery from being redeveloped, including developing guided walks for the public in the cemetery. Many of the tombs are either severely weathered beyond recognition or, if identifiable, are often marked with vestigial cultural-linguistic references that are unfamiliar to the contemporary public. More than the heritage value inherent in the cemetery, however, it was the government's announcement of an eight-lane expressway project that would destroy the cemetery that attracted public interest in the site. Since its announcement, citizens and civil society groups have taken action, from advocating for alternative development plans to volunteering to document the cemetery, in light of its impending end.
This chapter details one of the many attempts to support this activism and engagement of the public with the cemetery using iBBC, a mobile application (app) purposed to harness innovations in AR to assist the general public as they navigate through a densely forested area of tombstones.
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- Information
- Hard State, Soft City of Singapore , pp. 233 - 250Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020