Square Roots / Browsing Copy

We received our Browsing Copy, City Squares, in the middle of last year. For days we flipped through the book, looking through all these city squares of the world. In the process, we started asking ourselves what exactly is the meaning of traveling to various parts of the world, seeing things beyond our little red dot...

We recalled overhearing a conversation between 2 very well-travelled ladies at a cafe. They were trying to outdo each other with their travel stories, but when one of them asked the other about if she had been to Sembawang, the answer was no. 

It struck us that many of us are somewhat like her. We are well-travelled, but we hardly know the places in Singapore, and at times, not even the places within and around our own neighbourhood. 

So for our part in the Browsing Copy project, we wanted to bring a piece of Toa Payoh, our neighbourhood, into this City Squares book. Opening the book, the "reader" encounters 152 cubes, measuring 1.5cm on each side, painstakingly made over months from the pages of the book.  One side of the cubes forms an image of a Toa Payoh public space. The other side of the cubes gives you glimpses of the world's city squares. The former is a puzzle, and in order to put the picture of Toa Payoh together, the "reader"  must put in some effort. Just like how we can get to know our own neighbourhood, our country, better. 

See more images of City Squares and read more about Browsing Copy Vol. 1-3 at http:///www.browsingcopy.com



Project Year: 2012-13