Noting the absence of a unifying symbol that captures Singapore’s multiculturalism, Division of Industrial Design (DID) graduate Nazurah Rohayat wanted to use her final year thesis project to create something that represented the Singapore story and its diverse cultural narratives.
Her journey would lead her on an exploration of Singapore’s rich heritage, using cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) models to generate multicultural patterns that captured the attention of government minsters, and led to her designs appearing at the 2024 National Day Parade (NDP).
While Singapore is a multicultural society, Nazurah observed that each culture is often celebrated individually rather than as part of a united identity. During international events like ASEAN Day, for example, she noticed that “the chosen outfit to represent Singapore culturally reflects the individual’s cultural background,” emphasising a missing sense of shared cultural identity.
Inspired by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s speech during Racial Harmony Day in 2023, noting the need for a “third space that itself is multicultural”, Nazurah began her project. The result, Tapestree, is a collection of fabric designs that combine traditional and contemporary elements to create intricate, multicultural motifs set against vibrant backdrops.
The design journey
Nazurah first approached her project exploring Singapore’s traditional cultural identities, looking for ways to integrate elements from the Chinese, Indian, and Malay cultures into a cohesive whole. Her journey began at the Peranakan Museum, which holds one of the most comprehensive collections of Peranakan objects. From this visit, Nazurah says she learned how two cultures can come together to form a new culture. “This seamless integration highlights the beauty and adaptability that can emerge from cultural intermingling,” she reflects.
She also visited the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre to further understand how cultures evolved alongside each other in Singapore. Here, Nazurah found inspiration in the artistic expressions displayed, which reflected the fusion of cultural influences.
Creating multicultural motifs with AI
After her initial research was complete, Nazurah focused on creating new motifs that would represent a truly multicultural identity.
Motifs have traditionally played a significant role in storytelling across different cultures, but older designs were often rooted in specific regions. What was needed was a fresh approach that could transcend these cultural boundaries – for which she decided to turn to AI. However, existing AI models and online libraries often carry a Western bias, which meant that simply prompting an AI tool to generate a multicultural motif wouldn’t work.
Instead, Nazurah trained her own AI model using stable diffusion, a generative AI technique that creates images based on text and image prompts. She selected 50 distinct motif images from each culture, carefully scanning them from texts to train the model.
During the training process, Nazurah made sure to exclude 3D illustrations and designs with characters to ensure consistency in the dataset. She then used image tagging to help the AI model better recognise cultural patterns and generate authentic motifs.
After training the individual cultural models, Nazurah combined them into a single database, using a technique that known as Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) that allows AI models to be fine-tuned without retraining the entire system. By layering the cultural models onto a base AI model, she was able to create a tool that could generate new motifs, reflecting the multicultural essence of Singapore through designs that meshed together its various cultures.
Bringing Tapestree to life
With her AI-generated motifs ready, Nazurah finalised her fabric designs. Her project, Tapestree, was showcased at the 2024 DID Gradshow, which led to a chance encounter with Ms Rahayu Mahzam, Minister of State, Ministry of Digital Development and Information, and Ministry of Health.
Following their conversations, Nazurah was asked to create a design for the National Day Parade (NDP) 2024. Ms Rahayu requested a red and white colour scheme to align with the theme of the event. After completing the designs, Nazurah presented them to Ms Rahayu, who shared them with colleagues in the Ministries. The designs were well received, and both Ms Rahayu and Minister Josephine Teo wore Nazurah’s designs during the NDP celebrations on 9 August.
In addition to her NDP collaboration, Nazurah was approached by volunteers from the eMpowering Youths Across ASEAN programme to create a design representing Singapore’s multiculturalism. She responded by collaborating with local fashion collective Fashion Parade to create a special edition bandana which was worn by youth volunteers during the programme’s Cultural Night.
The impact of Tapestree
Reflecting on her experience, Nazurah says she sees her project as demonstration of how creative aspects of technology, design, and entrepreneurship can come together.
By blending traditional motifs from Singapore’s main cultures with the use of AI, she sees Tapestree as a new visual representation of the nation’s multicultural identity.
“The third space is not just an idea,” she says. “It is a feasible, vibrant reality woven into the fabric of everyday life, symbolising a future where all cultures not only co-exist but thrive together.”
