POV Spark, the interactive arm of the award-winning PBS series POV, presents PUBLIC UPDATE, a new online home for exploratory content about the world around us, driven by and curated for nontraditional voices.
The first volume includes five projects that invite audiences to expand their definition of documentary by interacting with nonfiction in new ways. We'll be sharing periodic spotlights on some of the artists and projects featured in Volume One.
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: NG SZE MIN
CREATOR OF "REASON TO THE MOON"
Ng Sze Min is a sound artist interested in expanding participatory and documentary forms. Her works include poetry singing on the spot, live storytelling where audiences choose the order of the scenes, and experimenting with a ‘paper orchestra’ featuring a 1000-strong crowd. They have been featured at The Esplanade (Singapore), Singapore Writers Festival, 15th Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (USA) and hillsceneLIVE 2019 (Melbourne, Australia). In 2019, she completed a month-long residency in Kluang, Malaysia, engaging local residents into detailing a sound map of their town.
A Co-Founder and Creative Audio Producer of Artwave Studio, she continues her practice into the arts, businesses and communities, bringing people together through music and sound. She lives and works in sunny Singapore. Reason to the Moon is her first audio documentary.
Reason to The Moon is an audio documentary offering a look at how astronauts view Earth - no space travel required. Sze Min shared some Behind The Scenes photos of her process in creating this work.
On Wednesday, August 4, 2020, we held an Instagram Live Talkback with Sze Min to learn more about what inspired Reason To The Moon and what upcoming projects she has in the works.
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyncote Foundation. Additional funding comes from The John S. and James Knight Foundation, Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Bertha Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Chicago Media Project, Lefkofsky Family Foundation, Sage Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
