TD24: Total Defence

Total Defence for Thee! was a commemorative exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of Singapore's Total Defence, staged by Defence Collective Singapore across multiple public sites. The national framework spans six pillars: Military, Civil, Economic, Social, Psychological, and Digital Defence, and the challenge for the exhibition was to take a concept this broad and make it feel genuinely personal for ordinary visitors. Texture was appointed to design and build the interactive digital layer that would do exactly that.

At the centre of our contribution was a two-part engagement system. Visitors first designed and personalised their own avatar character, choosing from a range of visual elements to create a figure that felt like them before it became part of the national story. They then submitted a pledge tied to one of the six pillars, selecting the dimension of Total Defence that felt most personally meaningful. Each pledge appeared on a collective display that accumulated throughout the run, building a visible, growing canvas of national commitment.

To close the loop, physical vending machines dispensed limited-edition Total Defence 40 commemorative pins as a reward for completing the experience. The three-stage arc, creating an avatar, making a pledge, and collecting a pin, moved visitors from passive exhibition-goers to active participants with a tangible memento of their involvement. It was a structure that respected both the solemnity of the occasion and the need to make national themes feel accessible and worth engaging with.

Avatar Customisation

Visitors designed their own character from a customisable set of visual elements before the avatar was linked to their pledge submission. The personalisation step was intentional: attaching a unique identity to each pledge made the act of committing feel more considered and more individual, turning a national theme into a personal statement.

Digital Pledge System

Each pledge was tied to one of the six pillars of Total Defence that the visitor felt most connected to. Submissions appeared on a shared collective display that grew in real time throughout the exhibition, creating a cumulative canvas that made each individual act visible as part of a larger national conversation.

Commemorative Pin Vending

Limited-edition Total Defence 40 pins were dispensed by physical vending machines as a reward for completing the avatar and pledge experience. The collectible gave visitors something to carry out of the exhibition, extending its presence into everyday life in a way that a digital-only experience cannot. Each pin was a permanent, tactile record of having been part of the commemoration.