Technology through the decades

IF YOU are of a certain vintage, the Tomy Pocketeer, pager and typewriter would ring a bell, and evoke memories of growing up years when fun meant an afternoon at the playground, rather than staring at a smartphone screen.

The three items are part of a collection of items on show at Off/On: Everyday Technology that Changed Our Lives, 1970s-2000s, a new exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore (NMS).

As the title suggests, the exhibition is a showcase of gadgets used in daily life over the decades.

Jonathan Goh, assistant director, strategic marketing & communications at NMS, says that while the exhibition is open to everyone of all ages, “nostalgia buffs will definitely enjoy looking back at the past”.

In current times, when everyone depends on technology, the curatorial team at NMS felt it was important to document its role. “What’s more, technology is constantly evolving,” says Priscilla Chua, its senior curator.

She adds that the different gadgets are also representative of the decades when Singapore was undergoing rapid transformation during its post-independence decades.

Most of the items on display are artefacts from the museum’s national collection, with a few pieces on loan from the public.

But rather than simply putting them in glass boxes, visitors are encouraged to touch and interact with some artefacts. “We want visitors to experience technology, which is the best way to understand it,” says Chua.

To create an experiential visit, themed rooms have been created, starting with an office set in the 1980s. Instead of fancy computers, typewriters were the norm and commonly used as businesses in Singapore were encouraged to raise productivity by adopting new technologies.

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In the next room are displays of early models of computers by IBM and Apple — massive in comparison to today’s ultra-thin laptops, but were seen as a progression from typewriters.

Of course, there has to be a section on how technology dedicated to the ways we communicated via telecommunication tools. In the coffeeshop themed room sits the orange coin phone, once a ubiquitous sight, but not any more. Then, there is the pager, which enabled people in Singapore to contact each other more easily, not only by leaving a number to call back, but also using selected numbers to send personalised messages.

The curatorial team tapped modern technology to bring some of these old gadgets to life. For example, visitors can step into an old-school photo studio to have their black-and-white picture taken, and then to the dark room, to watch the photo being developed. And instead of bringing that photo home, they can e-mail it to themselves.

Other fun activities that involve both new and old technology include a typing game and a pop quiz in which players have to decode numerical pager messages. 

Off/On: Everyday Technology that Changed Our Lives, 1970s–2000s, is the second edition of the Collecting Contemporary Singapore initiative, which aims to grow the museum’s contemporary collection to better reflect Singapore’s ever-evolving national identity. 

In line with the initiative, the museum is inviting the public to share their technological objects from the 2000s onwards up to the present day, along with their related experiences and stories of the objects that have shaped their lives in the areas of work, communications, home-living and play.

Chung May Khuen, NMS’s director, says: “As technology evolves rapidly through the years, and with the pandemic further highlighting the significant role of technology in our daily lives, we hope to broaden and update our collection in this area, which would enrich our documentation of the lived experiences of the people of Singapore.”

Off/On: Everyday Technology that Changed Our Lives, 1970s–2000s is on from Jun 10 to Oct 30 at National Museum of Singapore, Exhibition Gallery, basement level. Open from 10am daily.