Tag: "Wen-yi Lee"

Cntrl+Alt+Delete at the Synergy Art x Tech Fringe Festival

Victor Fernando R. OcampoLeave a comment

Frederick Pohl once said that Science Fiction wasn’t about technology but rather its human and societal implications – in other words, it wasn’t about cars but about traffic jams. This idea of using science fiction to describe and explore the implications of futuristic technologies and the social structures enabled by them was behind the project Cntrl+Alt+Delete by Nanyang Technological University, the Singapore government, and four speculative fiction writers (myself, Sarah Ang, Wen-yi Lee and Nuraliah Norasid).

Yesterday we got to talk about our SF stories and the cutting-edge technologies we wrote about at the Synergy Art x Tech Fringe Festival at the Figma Clubhouse organized by #Tusitala and #BeFantastic. Poet, technology enthusiast and civil servant Tse Hao Guang facilitated.

I had written 3 short stories: these include (1) a puppy love romance between two teens trapped in locked-in syndrome, involving AI, EEGs and Virtual reality technologies, (2) an extraordinary Singaporean triathlete and his obsession with enhancing his sports performance at any cost, involving advance prosthetics, and gene therapy, and lastly (3) a slightly gonzo tale about an alien invasion in Bukit Batok, with exploding birds, interdimensional travel, an autonomous vehicle full of hapless retirees in the most low-speed death ride ever. All three will become part of my second short story collection which I plan to finish by the end of this year.

My SWF 2023 Panels

Victor Fernando R. OcampoLeave a comment

Thank you again to the organizers of the 2023 Singapore Writers Festival for including me in two panels this year.

On Saturday, 25 November 1pm to 2pm, I will be moderating the panel ” Found Families in Science Fiction ” at the The Arts House, Chamber with Vivian Shaw, Wen-Yi Lee and Jason Erik Lundberg.

Nothing tests the strength of acceptance and belonging more than speculative universes where characters of no relation come together. Add unexpected life-changing adventures in stories, and you get a mishmash of misfits and reluctant heroes, forging unbreakable bonds. Three science fiction and fantasy writers muse on found families, unconventional relationships, and how we can find human connection in the most unlikely corners of existence.

On Sunday, 26 November 12.30pm to 1.30pm, I will be speaking at a panel, ” Young Punks: The Etymology of ‘Punk’ as Subgenre ” at the The Arts House, Play Den with Arkady Martine and
Amber Chen. Our Moderator will be Joyce Chng.

Steampunk and cyberpunk have been the OGs of their sci-fi subgenre, but it looks like there are some new kids in town! Taking a look at young ‘punks’ like dieselpunk, biopunk, and even… oceanpunk(?!), we unpack the ‘punk’ suffix and why it has spawned so many variations. Is it a fetishising of technology or a commentary on technocracies out of control? What kind of tensions do they invite with our past and future? What ties all these punks together and what new punks are being born?

Fish Eats Lion Redux TOC Announced

Victor Fernando R. OcampoLeave a comment
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 22036965.jpg

The landmark anthology Fish Eats Lion: New Singaporean Speculative Fiction collected the best original speculative fiction written in Singapore in or around 2012. It was the first local anthology that treated the literature of the fantastic as bona fide literary work, instead of simply just genre. Edited by Jason Erik Lundberg, this book included stories by Ng Yi-Sheng, Neon Yang, Daryl Yam and Shelly Bryant, who would all become leading lights in the APAC Spec Fic sphere, as well as works by mainstream fictionists who were not generally known for fantastical writing such as Grace Chia, Dave Chua, Noelle de Jesus, Isa Kamari, and Cyril Wong.

It’s been ten years since the original FEL and Jason has commissioned a follow-up anthology. I am very happy to be part of both books but it’s also a bit of a shock to realize that I’ve been getting published for so long. In my mind I am still a new writer struggling to get stories written and published (when I am not doing my day-job or house work, that is).

Congratulations to our evergreen editor Jason Erik Lundberg and to everyone on the new antho’s TOC. I can’t wait to read these new stories!

  • Stay in the Sun | Meihan Boey
  • L’Appel Du Vide | Victor Fernando R. Ocampo
  • Tiger Girls | Felicia Low-Jimenez
  • Insert Credit to Continue | Stuart Danker
  • Longkang at the End of the World | Kimberly Lium
  • Down Into the Waters | Wayne Rée
  • Road Trip | Izzy Liyana Harris
  • Blood Double | Sithuraj Ponraj
  • Blue | Cyril Wong
  • Wife, Skin, Keeper, Slick | Wen-yi Lee
  • 315 | Daryl Qilin Yam
  • Asha Hanar’s Dowry | Nuraliah Norasid
  • Multiversal Adapter | Suffian Hakim
  • The Dog Frontier | Inez Tan
  • Sejarah | Ng Yi-Sheng

More info here.