What does dementia sound like?

The Enabling Festival (6-8 September 2019) is in its second run this year. Our focus is on sound (in the form of hearing), one of the five senses. Sound has significant impact on persons with dementia in terms of their quality of life.

This three-day community festival is a kaleidoscope of multidisciplinary activities in the areas of art, music, design, theatre, film, dance, medical forums and hands-on workshops. Through these programmes and activities, we hope to showcase the potentialities in enabling persons with dementia to enjoy a better quality of life.

The festival also shines a spotlight on caregivers, who are often the invisible heroes and provides possibilities for caregivers’ respite and solace through many interesting activities. I am heartened to see many activities for caregivers such as Sharing Sessions, Meditation and Breathing workshops and even a Silent Disco Party, amongst many others.

This collaboration between Enable Asia, DesignSingapore Council, National Design Centre, OneMaker Group, Project We Forgot, Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA), ARUP, BLOXAS Architects and the support from Our Singapore Fund (OSF) and the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) allows the second edition of the Enabling Festival to leverage on how design, art and technology can make an impact in enabling persons with dementia, their caregivers and improve the quality of their life as we aspire to be a dementia friendly community.

What does dementia sound like?

A consolidated creative effort of many like-minded individuals, family caregivers and people living with dementia, in the hope of lending a louder voice to the dementia community in Singapore and across Asia. Enable Asia would like to thank in order of appearance – Anita Kapoor, Kate Pang, Catherine Sng, Clarence Lee, Adrian Pang, Peter Yu, Marcus Mok, Rachel Chua, Loretta Chen, Elaine Friedlander, Sam Driscoll, Dexter Ng, Sharda Harrison, Daniel Lim, Danny Raven Tan, Vincent Yong, Vi Vi Yeh, Sara Wee, Candyce Toh, Eugene Soh, Tan Quee Eng, Peter Lim Sun Hoe and the wonderful creative content partners from SPROUD.

For more information about the festival programmes, click here.

Rocking Chair Therapy-A Mother’s Cradling Arms

6 – 8 Sept 2019: 11.00am – 9.00pm

Rocking chair therapy has a positive effect on the mental and physical well-being for persons with dementia. It also improves the quality of life and contributes to a calmer environment for persons with dementia. The rocking chair therapy also proved to be a promising innovative method for improving quality of life for care facility residents.

Silent Disco-Closing Party

8 Sept 2019: 5.30pm – 7.00pm

It can be weird yet liberating, immersive yet euphoric. But it isn’t imposing, which makes it quite possibly the coolest thing ever. Put on a special pair of noise-cancelling headphones and gather with others who have done the same. Individually you can tune into one of the multiple channels – with specially curated playlists of yesteryear. Join us in this silent tea dance.

Designathon We Engage 2019

31 Aug – 1 Sept 2019

Designathon We Engage 2019 looks to empower the community to come together to design for dementia! The event brings together designers, developers, entrepreneurs, students, caregivers, healthcare workers and social service providers to collaborate and identify design solutions for persons with dementia and their caregivers in Singapore

Join in on various activities across the month of August and September 2019 as we view dementia from different perspectives, and explore how we can design for dementia.

Featured Art

Zoe
110 cm x 90 cm
Framed Acrylic painting with resin, modelling clay and UV varnish

Singaporean visual artist Danny Raven Tan, the co-founder of The Tiffin Gallery, known for his powerful Abstract and Expressionistic styled paintings, lends his support to the Enabling Festival with his acrylic portrait of the Queen of Mediacorp, Zoe Tay. The actress has also pledged her support to the festival by signing the artwork to raise funds for the dementia community.

Check out the NFT version of Zoe Tay here!

Like-minded Folks

Enable Asia does not believe in labels and status. Our mission is clear and simple. These like-minded folks have rendered us their kindest support and guidance towards realising our vision and for being so generous with their time and effort and more importantly, to help us build a community of enablers. Celebrity or not, you are our ROCKSTAR!

For more videos of our ROCKSTARS, check out our  YouTube Channel. Thank You.