3/8/23

Greenfield, Brownfield (2022) for fixed media

Performances

  • 2022

    Soundbites

    Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music

  • 2022 (premiere)

    Thailand International Composition Festival 2022

    Composition Department Concert

    College of Music, Mahidol University

Greenfield: land (such as potential industrial site) not previously developed or polluted

Brownfield: a tract of land that has been developed for industrial purposes, polluted, and then abandoned

In urban planning, the terms Greenfield and Brownfield are often used to describe the various status of the land that developers and investors look at. While greenfield lands often bring about better investment opportunities, recent shift in mindset towards a more sustainable future also meant that redeveloping brownfield lands should be equally considered. Nonetheless, more greenfield lands will still be compromised with the need of continuous economic development, while the heritage in brownfield sites would also be lost in the process. In Singapore, the Singapore Green Plan has charted out a highly productive trajectory towards a sustainable future, but it remains to see how subsequent developments will be carried out.

Greenfield, Brownfield symbolises the transformation of a serene greenfield land into a bustling cityscape, before it suddenly dissipates, turning it into a desolate place. The transformation is charcterised by the slowly evolving bird calls into industrial noises, before it settles back into an ambient environment with a mix of traffic and nature sounds, hinting the forgotten and wasted space.

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Composition for an Electric Ensemble (2022)