Reflections of Little Red Dot

Chloé Lee

Artwork Description:

Winner of the SXSW 2025 Jury Award and GIFF Reflet d'Or, Reflections of Little Red Dot began as a linear documentary before evolving into a mixed-reality installation — a walkable archive of Singapore's urban transformation. Inspired by the artist's life in NYC, where she saw parallels linking local gentrification with Singapore's rapid change while caring for her grandmother, the project grew from a decade-long archive of interviews conducted in 2015. She learned the issue was not change itself, but the pace and lack of agency felt. Wearing a VR headset, viewers navigate this history through a custom retro slide projector. Changing physical slides — a gesture of remembering — shifts the holographic atmosphere to reflect personal sites of significance. Using 3D trace drawings and archival video, the audience walks through the space and live-edits the film, gaining the narrative agency often denied in real-world urban renewal. Thematic slides — Urban Renewal, Cultural Preservation, Language, Food and Family — are bookended by an Intro and Conclusion. The installation preserves collective memory through long-form edits, allowing viewers to 'sit in on a moment' rather than consuming a montage of sound bites. The sonic environment reflects this: from afar, people hear a collective sea of voices; as they sit on physical stools across from a subject's story, the surrounding audio fades. Using generative AI, transcripts create unique 360-degree landscapes visible through a physical window, mirroring a society in transition. The project asks what is lost when progress erases physical memory.

Project Collaborators:

Lucas Martinic (Lead XR Developer), Bryn Durgin (Singapore Production Coordinator), Evan Devitto (Audio Recordist). Support: CUNY Hunter College, Integrated Media Arts (MFA Thesis).