DYNAMIC STASIS: A REPRESENTATION OF 'PLACE' IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Place is significant as it situates itself in the urban landscape through unique social associations with aesthetics, phenomenology and form. In theoretical discourse, place is connoted by an ideal of a heterogeneous community wherein its congregations are bonded by mutual ethnic affinities. This is in contrast to the Singapore Government’s ideal of creating a homogeneous community in the State by which ethnic enclaves have been largely disintegrated for the purpose of national cohesion. Consequently, ‘place’ as constructed by the State diverges from normative, discursive descriptions of it. The Identity Plan is demonstrative of the State’s attempt at defining place in Singapore. As such, the project entails utilising the Identity Plan as a vehicle to review and critique the State’s notion of place. ‘Place’ as defined in the Identity Plan is idealised figuratively and literally. These definitions present a static treatment of ‘place’. In reality, ‘place’ in Singapore is not fully static. It is independent of the State’s control to a certain extent. Social associations and insurgencies (i.e., smaller ethnic communities) form places not defined by the Identity Plan. Thus, ‘place’ in Singapore is dynamically being redefined. This dissertation seeks to present a reality for ‘place’ in Singapore as that which is always in a state of dynamic stasis. This proposition reconciles two divergent notions of place in critical theory (i.e., Dolores Hayden’s notion of place as static and Kim Dovey’s notion of place as dynamic). Dynamic Stasis is identified as aspects of place that are in a fixed construct, yet undergo varying stages of evolution due to uncontrollable changes from its constituents. The project seeks to demonstrate that, in reality, ‘place’ in Singapore is not as static as implied in The Identity Plan. It is in a state of dynamic stasis.