Yale-NUS alumni help launch immersive experience at National Gallery Singapore

Yale-NUS alumni Leanne Tan (Class of 2021) and Jevon Chandra (Class of 2017) recently helped launch Scarce City, an immersive game installation at the National Gallery Singapore, as part of Rainshadow Studios, a climate arts non-profit company. The installation, which runs from 11 January to 30 March 2025, used a blend of game mechanics involving resource management, intriguing soundscapes, and visual arts to create an interactive environment where participants could grapple with real-world climate issues.

Supported by the National Arts Council Production Grant, the Sustain the Arts Fund, and the Lee Foundation, Scarce City combined serious games and immersive theatre to inspire participants to contemplate the psychology behind climate change and what it means to have enough.

Leanne and Jevon (third and fourth from the left), together with the team from Rainshadow Studios. Photo provided by Rainshadow Studios.

For Leanne, who is the Co-Creator and Game Designer for Scarce City, shared that the journey to Scarce City began at Yale-NUS College, where she cultivated her interest in environmental storytelling. Her capstone project, The Renewable Energy Escapade, questioned common assumptions about renewable energy. This foundational experience provided Leanne with the skills and confidence to take on complex projects which merge environmental themes with interactive media.

Leanne shared how the creative freedom she experienced at Yale-NUS was pivotal in shaping her approach to her work, fondly recalling how she submitted a dance piece for a course on ethics or explored philosophical concepts through essays on films.

She shared, “Yale-NUS has always encouraged me to do things differently. It took me pretty much all of freshman year to adjust from the exams-and-grades-only mindset to one of wanting to genuinely learn for learning’s sake.”

According to Leanne, Scarce City was about creating a space for reflection and provoking questions, not prescribing answers.

“Collaborating with so many different people means learning about a lot of different perspectives, some of which I fight against, but all of which are valuable! Whatever their conclusion is, I don’t mind, as long as they start thinking about the assumptions they’ve held.”

Jevon, the composer and sound designer for Scarce City, brought a deep understanding of interdisciplinary storytelling to the project. Jevon shared that during his time at Yale-NUS, he had the opportunity to explore connections between sound, space, and narrative.

“Yale-NUS was a time for me to really anchor the belief that everything was connected to everything else. Which is precisely what both art and foresight work try to illuminate through seeing the world as it is and as it is changing, in complex ways unbounded by discipline and form. That I get to practice that belief in my professional work is a huge privilege,” Jevon shared.

Jevon’s Capstone project, [i carry], was a 24-hour performance-installation tracking the movements of lifts around the Yale-NUS campus, as a metaphor for all the carrying (that lifts do) and caring that students, staff, faculty, even strangers passing by the campus do for each other. “I knew that I had an interest in spaces and the stories they embody and enable; most of my memories are bound to specific locations. I think what Yale-NUS did was to give space for me to follow instincts and interests organically, even if I had no language to articulate them then.”

In Scarce City, Jevon’s sound design balanced creativity with practicality. “My concerns were foremost functional and logistical. Functional because music and sound needed to convey information – specifically, how players were faring in the game, so audio was not just dressing but part of the user experience,” he explained.

Similarly to Leanne, Jevon hoped the auditory elements helped participants to immerse themselves and confront the installation’s central question: “What is enough?”

He shared, “I hope participants get to briefly immerse themselves in another world that feels like ours, is adjacent to ours, or is manifestly inspired by ours, such that when they return (to the “real” world) they can see things anew.”

An immersive experience at Scarce City. Photo credit: CRISPI.

Looking back at their undergraduate years, Leanne and Jevon reflected on how the supportive and interdisciplinary environment at Yale-NUS laid the foundation for their work. Leanne attributed former Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Humanities (Environmental Studies) Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, for playing a pivotal role in connecting her with Rainshadow Studios and encouraging her to explore uncharted paths. “He believed in me and talked me up more than I did for myself,” Leanne recalled.

Jevon also reflected on the value of having a space to experiment and grow. “I will always be grateful for Yale-NUS, especially the community, for giving me a space to try and to fail. To follow instincts and make something even if you know little and even if the product is terrible; especially on hindsight, I see how much generosity was given to us by faculty and staff. For better and worse, many other places are not so lenient, but to once upon a time have a space to grow the muscle of trying new things, and to nurture the consciousness that possibilities can be boundless if you seek them, was formative for me.”