Void

VOID is a poetic immersive experience using the VR game medium to represent personal experiences of working motherhood. The project started with some 3D scans that I began making whilst waiting. As a working mother with a young baby, I spend quite a lot of time waiting for cars to ferry me and baby between places. When childcare centres were all shut down in Singapore during the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, I frequently commuted between my parents’ HDB flat and my own HDB flat where they could take care of baby whilst I was working. The only glimpses of the world outdoor that I had were these dimly lit void decks of public housing flats.

Commuting to their home before the sun had risen and commuting back to my home after the sun had set, juggling work and childcare, my sleep-deprived self began imagining this daily journey like a fever dream - like being lost at sea, floating between mysterious watery ruins on a tiny boat.

Over 80% of Singapore’s population live in Housing Development Board (HDB) flats. A unique feature to these government-built HDB blocks is an open space on the ground floor of each block which is known as the “void deck”. In land-scarce Singapore, the void deck is usually used for communal activities such as informal gatherings, weddings, and funerals.