it's rather distressing that when people talk about the world-wide-web, they very seldom mention the word culture. or realize the fact that digital beings will soon outnumber the living and the dead combined. we catch up with paul tan to talk about his adventures in cyberspace and to ask him that burning question - is elvis alive and living on the internet?name: paul tan
d.o.b: 27 march 1967
what you do: cyber culturist and creative
p: how are you and how is elvis?
pt: i'm fine but i can't speak for elvis, you'll have to google him yourself.
p: what is a cyber culturist?
pt: i knew you'd ask me that. a cyber culturist is an observer, advocate and documenter of online culture. the basis is simple - where is everyone today and what are they doing there?
p: can you tell us about your journey so far?
pt: it's been a long one with great experiences. i've gone from floppy disks to gigs of memory the size of my thumb, castle wolfenstein to counter strike, oil painting to set design to videography to directing flash sites. i've done research for big brands and contributed to their strategic marketing plans. creativity is a transition.
p: tell us about your set design for mtv asia awards 2004?
pt: i was with singapore repertory theatre at the time when i got a call from mtv. they wanted a massive set for the show at singapore indoor stadium. the show was on valentine's day and the theme was of course love. it was a tough theme - how does one present love in an un-corny way and have that understood by the young mtv audience? i guess you could say that this was my first actual foray into cyberspace. i did days of online research before coming up with the design that took up almost half of the venue. it was dark and disturbing and they loved it.
p: and you went on to work for mtv?
pt: yes i did, but as an independent creative for the marketing and digital media department. i re-skinned their old website and worked on the mtv trade campaign creative look and feel as well as the guerilla section of its trade portal. you can check out the giant screen saver i worked with photographer geoff ang on for the trade party at supreme court on www.poolatwork.blogspot.com
i will say mtv really nurtured my online concepts and i was given the opportunity to think and propose for brands like motorola, samsung, johnny walker, x-box as well as original concepts for mtv itself.
p: what's the most exciting project you've worked on to date?
pt: that would be the zouk book micro-site - www.zoukbook.com and cd-rom. it was a contributor's book and i had to interview clubbers and opinion leaders on camera, post it online to stimulate contributions. this was years ago and as far as i know, way before any video profiling of opinion leaders was used.
i spent months in the club interviewing 35 international djs, punters and shooting the dancefloor and dj booth action for the video section of the cd-rom. i interviewed danny tanaglia, roger sanchez, dave seaman, fat boy slim, giles peterson and a whole bunch of other djs. i had so much footage that i ended up cutting a tvc and radio spot with my vo for the club as well. the tvc ended up on that big monitor outside lido cinema. that was pretty awesome. you can see some of the unreleased interviews and the tvc on www.poolatwork.blogspot.com
p: what are you doing now?
pt: well, after my creative gig with tiger beer where i directed its new website and curated its global design and music platform, translate - www.tigerbeer.com
i'm now working with several online communities and doing trend research for synovate quarterly. based on the research, i discovered that there were strong desires in the community for music, beauty, digital content and social profiling. so i've put together a few online environments, firstly for research and documentation but also to provide a space for communities to gather, share and contribute. they are called rightclick, jane's beauty shop, deep end and pool people respectively. please do have a look.
p: so what's next in the pipeline?
pt: something meaty, viral and free.
p: ok last question - can you leave us some wise words?
pt: understand very clearly who you're talking to.
paul's creative output and research direction can be found on the following links:
www.rightclickamix.com
www.awe50me.com
www.youtopiaproject.wordpress.com
www.dope.com.sg
www.poolatwork.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/paulofpool
Radio / Podcast:
www.gcast.com/u/RIGHTCLICK djs
www.gcast.com/u/RIGHTCLICK/dope dance
www.gcast.com/u/RIGHTCLICK/AWE50ME mash-up
www.gcast.com/u/RIGHTCLICK/rightclickloosechange eclectic
he is a contributing editor for mtv 2nd edition collection of cool - gamers, a collection of essays and stories of cutting edge asian youth themes and concepts.
a published artist himself, he has curated several exhibitions on street art including world renowned new york artists faile. always keen on the 'next wave', he has brought many emerging artists to the international stage.
he works very closely with a group of trend analysts, brand architects and strategists to help brands reach beyond the looking glass.
