Home, Truly

Using the home as a metaphor and through five key themes, Home, Truly is presented in intimate, familiar settings that invites visitors to see themselves in the stories presented, with different moments in the journey that encourage visitors to reflect on what Singapore means to them as their home, and their hopes for the home they aspire it to be. People’s stories are at the center of Home, Truly, spanning both personal and national moments, through photographs, artefacts and oral histories, including those contributed by members of the public, as well as audio-visual footage, sounds, scents and special digital interactive features.

The exhibition’s five sections – Laying the Foundations, Moving In, Living Together, Open Doors and Sturdy Through Storms – features foundational nation-building policies such as housing, economy and defence, invites visitors into common experiences that breathe life into a nation such as going to school or enjoying hawker food, and explores themes like Singapore’s transformation, its immigrant and multicultural past and overcoming crises and challenges.

Is home to you about people, places or experiences? At the beginning of the exhibition, visitors can register RFID tags that are issued to them via an interactive station. Through their responses to prompts within the exhibition, visitors can find out more about what home means to them based on their responses. They will also receive a specially curated list of digital content based on their personal journey throughout the exhibition.

GSM applies accessibility standards in its space and content design for wheelchair users, and for families with children. This time, in exploring how the visually impaired community may experience a primarily visual exhibition on home meaningfully, GSM responded to the National Museum’s brief to include exhibition features that would be friendly to the visually impaired community. These include an ambient soundscape of familiar sounds, diffused scents, and a special recording device that allows the visually impaired to record their responses to the exhibition’s final interactive, instead of writing down their responses.

One significant effect of COVID-19 that we are all very familiar with has been the fear of close contact and touch. Mindful of opening an exhibition during pandemic times, we paid particular attention to help visitors engage safely and enjoyably with the exhibition through adapting technology for contactless experiences.

GSM Project is honored to have collaborated with the National Museum of Singapore to design the temporary exhibition Home, Truly: Growing up with Singapore 1950’s to the Present, that opened in December 2020 and contributes towards building a sense of belonging to Singapore as home and conversations on what it means to call this place home.