School: Saint Joseph's Institution
    Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

12 students, ages 15-16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 21, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 1999, 2000, 2002

Classes and Teachers: Mr. Raymond Wong

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.sji.moe.edu.sg/

1. Description of Our Community

We define our community mainly as our country Singapore. Located south of Peninsular Malaysia, it has been developing rapidly in terms of economical growth and technological advances. It remains a peace-loving country and encourages harmony among the people. Another unique feature of our community is our multi-racial society. Despite different ethnic groups, language or religion, we strive to get along well so as to prevent any racial issues to be a problem in the country. As always, it promotes harmony in diversity and we hope it will be the same for the world as well, to live in peace always.

The art forms are different in here and vary from ethnic groups. We wish to bring them together as one, something that is truly an art form of Singapore. This we define as our community too, with the diverse race of different backgrounds and heritage

2. Summary of Our Project

In Singapore, tourism has been one of the main contributions to our country's revenues. As it continues to boost the quality of its tourism and services, it has also began promoting its local arts scene. Having contructed a $6-million performing arts centre known as the Esplanade, now widely used to showcase some of our country's best music and arts scene

As it is something new, we hope our project can help to promote it further as it will reach out to people throughout the world with International Schools Cyberfair being a world renowned web competition. Although it is a big challenge to take on something which is as new and with not much data, we aim to educate people throughout the world, on our local arts scene. Not just the traditional ones, but the modern ones as well.

As you can see, in the past, Singapore has always had a diverse multi-cultural art forms ranging from Chinese opera to Malay performances and Indian dances. Never had Singapore an art form they define as their own. Though over the years, Singapore’s arts scene has been developing rapidly and strives to forge an identity for itself. This is also not neglecting its own cultural roots or yet being limited by it. Now, with the Esplanade, hopes for having an arts scene to call our own is now made possible with an infusion of our diverse multi-cultural art forms. This we call Singapore Arts, and we hope it will one day be internationally recognized.

Here in Opus Infusion, we showcase the different traditional art forms in our community as well as bring them together as one. We want the world to know that even though each and every ethnic groups has its own unique cultures and heritage, it is still possible to bring them together as one. Also, we want to spread this message to the world on how people of different ethic groups should come together and unite as one, and ultimately, for the world to remain free of troubles and live together as one.

This we call, Opus Infusion.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Due to the fact that the Esplanade has been a recent matter, information on it is generally scarce. This has led to the fact that we had to depend on the people in our community for information. Interviews thus became and important aspect and even though we have managed to gather sufficient information, there were times when we were rejected and even disallowed to take pictures in certain places, we tried our best and never give up even though the thought did run through.

As we have also started the project much later, somewhere during February, time management was important and we had to juggle between both our academic work and this project. Ultimately, it seemed that this project has proved to be much of a use for our work and has given us confidence to work independently.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

As to promote the local arts scene, it has led to a greater awareness of the country's local arts among the community and not to let negligence to be in the way. It has too showed that success will always belong to those who will not give up and not to take things in life for granted.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

The project as helped us a lot as we have learnt much useful information which coincides with Social Studies, a national education subject within our community. It has given us greater insight as to why the Government has done such things, like the building of the Esplanade.

Also, we carried out our research in a typical manner which the school has trained us to do for our inter-disciplinary project. As this project is more demanding, our research skills have increased with the experience gained by doing extensive research. Not only have we searched the internet for information, we have even gone so far as to go to specific places to gather information. Hence, this important experience which we have gain has proven useful in school project works.

Not only that, it has helped us to broaden our view of the world and the importance of world peace. We see the importance of racial harmony. It has given us not only knowledge, but a valuable experience and letting us have our own independent and individual perspectives.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

Hardware: Digital Cameras Cellphones Windows PCs

Internet: http://www.google.com/ http://www.nac.org.sg/ http://www.yahoo.com/

Software: Adobe Photoshop Macromedia Dreamweaver Macromedia Fireworks Macromedia Flash Microsoft Word MSN Messenger

Venues: Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Singapore Arts Museum Victoria Concert Hall

Digital Cameras have helped in the contribution of graphics here on the website. 60% of the images seen here are purely taken from our very own digital cameras. Cellphones have paved the way for better communications among group members, making it very easy to contact group members in case of an emergency or discrepency on the project information. Search engines have been heavily used to find research info for the site. NAC, the National Arts Council (Singapore) website has helped our group a lot in terms of finding research materials and ideas. In terms of software, we encountered no problems at all as everyone has been trained in using them. MSN messenger had played an important role in our project as we do not get to meet very often and so, it allowed us to get together online to do our work.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

We actually became "ambassadors" unintentionally. It all started as we were asking for permission on the use of some of the images on the official website and the reply came in a form of a telephone call. The people over there seemed to be interested in what we were doing to promote our nation's local arts scene and provided us with the necessary information. Interviews were definitely an important aspect though there were times where we were rejected as we asked if they could spare time.

Also, this project’s main purpose is actually to hope to unite the world together as one and to live peacefully. In a way, we have turned into “ambassadors” by promoting our community’s diverse multi-racial society. We want to show the world how all ethic groups can come together despite in various differences. Over here, we use our country’s arts scene as a perspective to inspire the world, that arts and music with different backgrounds can come together as one. We want to show to the people, not just the people in our country but throughout the world, how we can infuse arts of different ethics groups into one and also shows how it is possible for the world to come together as one. In such a way, we have acted as “ambassadors” to spread of message of love and peace as well as promoting the country’s arts scene

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

This project has definitely allowed us to take a break from our usual life. As a nation that strongly emphasizes on education and mainly in the Research and Technology sectors, this project has been something different. As our country is now showing serious intentions on promoting the arts scene, we too hope to help accelerate this process. People have started taking notice of this site and especially the youths in the country. This has led to an awareness of the local arts scene and not to neglect them. This too, has also educated people round the globe and has made the world known about the local arts scene in asia. This would definitely be worth learning about and many seemed impressed with this site.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

As information on this topic is still scarce, our main source of information depended heavily on the people from our community. It has thus turned into an important aspect in the process of information gathering. Our teacher too, was most supportive of this project and gave the fullest support by allowing us to make our own decisions independently. He even gave us a day off just to make a visit for photograph-taking!

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

This project has definitely allowed us to gained much knowledge on our current topic. Not only that, it also allowed us to think independently and maturely, and to realise the importance of racial harmony in a country so diverse in its ethnic groups. We also discovered how arts and culture can actually mold a person in a different way and how this site would not just educate and promote the world on our local arts scene, but to spread the message of love and peace, to always remain harmonious regardless of race, language or religon. It has also told us the importance of perseverance, and we have learned never to give up in life, and success will always come with patience and learning to accept and learn from our past mistakes.'

Also, we learn how arts n music can be a universal language and bring things together as one and also, how it inspires us to be more aware of the world, the need for the world to come together as one.