STAR RESIDENCIES is a new residency programme that engages artists and scientists through interdisciplinary collaboration. The first cycle of STAR RESIDENCIES (2025–26) unfolds in collaboration with NTU Earth Observatory of Singapore.
The Observatory
15 April 2025 - 31 March 2026
During STAR RECIDENCY, The Observatory will deepen their entanglement with subterranean phenomena and geological formations. Drawn to the complexity and non-linear nature of volcanoes as well as to their cultural significance in diverse belief systems, the artists will collaborate with the Volcano Group and other EOS researchers to grow their understanding of these unpredictable and explosive entities, with a focus on the volcanic arcs that shape Southeast Asia. In line with their sound-centred approach to experimentation and research, they are particularly interested in exploring the sonic emanations of volcanic phenomena. Furthermore, they also plan to look at the intricate processes of magma transport dynamics, viscous flow, rock formation/deformation, crystallisation, degassing, and solidification. By reinterpreting the data and knowledge produced by EOS researchers, The Observatory aim to develop new perspectives that, synthetising scientific research and artistic imagination, resonate from deep time to contemporary existence.
The Observatory is a band whose music and cultural ethos is to responds and speaks back to the contemporary afflictions in Singapore and the global milieu. Its current constellation comprises multi-instrumentalists Cheryl Ong, Dharma and Yuen Chee Wai who tread on improvisation, intermedia, experimentation and noise-adjacent territories. In confronting new forms of disorders, The Observatory restlessly turns upon itself to agitate, to comfort and to resist. Drawing on old and new lexicons, The Observatory seeks to bridge artists and expressions (a bit unclear, maybe consider: diverse artistic expressions?). Two decades on, the band’s polymath practice encompasses music and performance; in-person festivals and online radio shows; touring gigs and interdisciplinary exhibitions.
