Instant Citizen

Pop-up Exhibition
The people from Gentlefolk County exist in a utopia where machines design their perfect lives in a perfect society. These machines have been engineered to improve the user’s routines in daily life such as personal grooming, table etiquette, small talk and body posture.

Instant Citizen is an art-design installation that presents a whimsical commentary on citizenship and society. It postulates that the “engineered” citizen will foster greater systematic interactions with fellow citizens, producing a society that will operate like a well-oiled machine. Two such machines (part of a battery of seven to be launched at a later date) is on display in a pop-up preview at the National Design Centre.

View the Carpet Grass Dispenser that rolls out fresh supplies of grass for instant greenery; and the Desk of Optimal Study that promises high productivity at work. The machines are a fantastical counterpoint to the Fifty Years of Singapore Design exhibition, which focuses on the formal contribution of design to nation-building.

Presented by Fiona Tan, a DesignSingapore scholar, artist and architectural designer; and Yangjie, an artist.