Cultural Analytics and Informatics
Co-designed and taught a Masters-level course at NUS exploring cultural data through immersive media — 360° capture, photogrammetry, AR, VR, olfactory displays, and games.
Client: NUS Communications and New Media
Year: 2025
Roles: Co-Lecturer & Curriculum Designer
Cultural Analytics and Informatics, 2025
Co-taught with Natalie Pang at NUS Communications and New Media for Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship Masters students, this course explored the "fascinating universe of cultural data" and ways of making it publicly accessible through emerging technologies.
Approach
The course introduced students to a range of methods for capturing, analyzing, and presenting cultural data:
- 360° immersive media — spatial capture for heritage and site documentation
- Photogrammetry — reconstructing 3D assets from photographs
- Augmented Reality — layering digital content onto physical cultural sites
- Virtual Reality — immersive heritage and storytelling experiences
- Olfactory displays — scent as a medium for cultural memory
- Games — interactive systems for cultural learning and engagement
Student Projects
- Design Your Own Peranakan Tile — an interactive experience teaching the symbolism behind traditional tile patterns
- Spice Trade Journey — tracing the route of spices from historical trade networks to the contemporary hawker centre table
- Campus Moss Discovery — revealing the rich diversity of moss species across the NUS campus
- AR Campus Memories — recording and reliving personal memories of campus life, on location, in augmented reality
- Haji Lane Cat — travelling through time and space along Haji Lane through the eyes of a cat
Partners
- Assoc Prof Natalie Pang — Head, NUS Libraries; originator of the course
- NUS Libraries XR mentors: Steven Chow, Raudhah Thongkam
- NUS College of Design & Engineering lecturers: Eng Tat Khoo, Shaoyu Cai
- National Gallery Singapore Learning and Outreach team: Annabelle Tan, Tingting Wang