ONE POINT SIX ONE EIGHT
Short Video · HD 1920×1080 · Commissioned by The British Council
What does it mean to express the infinite with a lens and a soundwave?
One Point Six One Eight is a visual interpretation of a poem by Singaporean writer Madeleine Lee, produced as part of Writing the City — a British Council Singapore series exploring literary texts through film. The poem plays with the golden ratio as both mathematical order and emotional motif. In response, the video interprets this idea as fragility in structure and collapse in form — using macro footage of a catenoid made from soap film.
Exhibition
Writing the City
National Library Board, Singapore
Cineplex Screenings, Singapore
Presented by The British Council Singapore
Produced by Syndicate SG
In partnership with National Arts Council, Shaw Theatres, BooksActually, LUSH 99.5FM
Technology
Macro Photography — used to capture high-detail textures and collapse of a soap-based catenoid in motion
After Effects — for compositing, sequencing, and overlaying poetic text
Photoshop — colour grading and visual treatment in reference to archival scientific aesthetics
Original Sound Design — ambient score composed as Suki Quasimodo, blending analog textures with restrained pacing
Process
The work began by studying the form and behaviour of a catenoid — a shape that holds tension until it implodes. This became a metaphor for the balance between poetry and mathematics. Using macro photography, the ephemeral structure was filmed as it warped and collapsed, its movement dictated by surface tension and time.
To match the literary tone, a visual palette drawn from 90s educational films was applied through colour grading, typography, and pacing. The final piece merges image, sound, and type into a short video poem — intimate, tactile, and quietly referential.
Output
2-minute HD short video
Distributed across cinemas, libraries, and literary platforms in Singapore
Presented with text by Madeleine Lee
Reflection
One Point Six One Eight explores what happens when structure gives way to sensation — when mathematical precision dissolves into poetics. It is a quiet study of collapse, observation, and resonance, where micro-worlds become meaning.