The Knowledge
Singapore is a city that is reputed to have the only public transport system in the world that makes money. Its landmass has increased from 581 to 700 square kilometres since independence in 1965. Kitchener, Hindoo and Syed Alwi are all street names in the Little India district. True or false. Ask Boxcopy.
After committing to learn as much about Singapore as possible, members of this Brisbane ARI (Artist Run Initiative), launched BPCOS, The Boxcopy Publics Carrying Office of Singapore, a courier company offering to make deliveries for no charge. Their project, entitled The Knowledge after the famous knowledge test once taken by London cab drivers, was presented as part of ‘Invisible Structures: Australian artist collectives in Tokyo, Singapore and Yogyakarta’ which was developed by Asialink in association with Next Wave. This suite of residencies followed on from the 2010 Next Wave Festival program, ‘Structural Integrity’, which involved eleven Australian and international Artist Run Initiatives. Boxcopy was hosted by Next Wave participants, Jennifer Teo and Woon Tien Wei of Post-Museum, which generated the first delivery requests through its Food #03-BenBino’s deli-bar.
The Knowledge is a work which afforded many of the satisfactions of life and travel. Each day promised a mix of accumulating routines and ventures further afield—of moving up, down and across, of feeling useful and taking pride in a job well done. In a prospering city with a labour shortage there was no issue with BPCOS competing with local businesses. As Singaporeans avoid going outdoors during the hottest hours of the day, cyclists comprise a fraction of the traffic. Crisscrossing the CBD and its adjacent older neighbourhoods by foot, bicycle and public transport, when BPCOS couriers cycled they