A four-person crew from Tulungagung turned a Singapore heritage building into a glowing tiger god  and walked away $5,000 richer
Four guys from a small city in East Java just out-designed teams from across Southeast Asia, on a stage most of them had never visited before.

At a glance

• Prize: US$5,000 and the "Champion" title
• Finalists beaten: 18, from across Southeast Asia
• Venue: The Cathay building facade, Singapore
• Dates: Singapore Night Festival 2026 runs August 21–September 5, 2026
  
  

Acobean Studio, a four-person creative team based in Tulungagung, East Java, won first place at the MALAM Projection Mapping Competition, a new event held as part of Singapore Night Festival 2026. The team submitted a piece titled "Lintang Kartika," which was projected onto the facade of The Cathay building in Singapore. They beat out 18 finalists drawn from creative collectives and students across Southeast Asia, and took home US$5,000 in prize money.

The team is made up of Anggarvino, Bagas Rofino Putra, Sulton Amanullah, and M. Riduwan. Together they form part of a wider arts collective called Gulung Tukar. None of them are based in Jakarta or Bali, the usual centers for Indonesia's creative industry  they work out of Tulungagung, a city better known for its marble carving trade than for digital art.

Credit : Instagram VideomappingIndonesia

What is the MALAM Projection Mapping Competition?

MALAM was the first edition of a projection mapping contest built into Singapore Night Festival, an annual event now in its 2026 run under the theme "Myths and Legends." The competition invited artists, students, and creative collectives from around the region to design large-scale light projections for public buildings in the Bras Basah and Bugis precincts. Eighteen entries made it to the finals and were projected onto The Cathay, a landmark building near the festival grounds, for the public and judges to see.

Acobean Studio's winning piece, "Lintang Kartika," combined moving figures drawn from myth and folklore with a color palette that shifted between deep blue, violet, and gold across the building's surface. Onlookers gathered outside The Cathay as the animation played, a mix of dragon-like forms, a glowing tiger-faced figure, and layered geometric patterns synced to sound.

How much prize money did the team win?

The team received US$5,000 and the "Champion" trophy at the closing of the competition. The win was documented on Instagram by both infipop.id and ussfeeds, with credit given to the team's own account, @acobean.id, where behind-the-scenes footage of the project was first posted.

Why does a win like this matter?

Southeast Asia's projection mapping scene tends to be dominated by teams from Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines, cities with more established digital art infrastructure. A team from Tulungagung, a city with no major art school pipeline for this kind of work, taking first place against that field is the kind of upset that gets shared far beyond the digital art community.