The project is meant to challenge people to get out of their daily routine

Dec 7, 2013 07:29 GMT  ·  By
After you enter your contact info you just select an icon and you're good to go
   After you enter your contact info you just select an icon and you're good to go

For its 2014 Fringe Festival, Singapore will witness a new type of art, one that focuses on bringing busy people together through hand-painted miniature individuals scattered all over public places. The distinct figurines can be adopted by anyone who wants to make a new friend.

Wei Keong Tan is the artist who wanted to change people's daily routine by disrupting the urban setting with 0.79 inch (2 cm) figurines that hold personalized messages. Anyone, from wherever they are, if interested in adopting a message-bearing figurine can do so just by registering on the event's website.

Every figurine is different, modeling characters such as superheroes, businessmen, or even housewives, and they will also have a special message left by the adopters. Each person registering for a miniature message-bearing icon can choose to leave contact information if they decide they want to be contacted by those who find the item.

The festival will take place from January 8 to 19, and those who adopt a small friendship icon can track the status of their figurine to see if it was found, lost, or still waiting. If the figurine is not reported in 7 days it is considered lost, but someone will surely find them. Every character is accompanied by a small wooden card that holds a unique URL or QR code making it easy to track online.

Besides the code, the adopted icon will also hold a message from the owner, most of them starting with “I am waiting...” The developers worked on this project for almost a year and want to reach an adoption number of 1,000 models. “All figurines in Foundin are individuals seeking to be found in one way or another, just like everyone of us,” Tan says, according to Foundin Singapore Blog.

The website is open for adoptions and the best part is that it is free, and it only takes a few minutes. It is quite interesting, you never know who you will meet through that tiny message-bearing statuette, and it's quite fun to see what characters you have available from more than 900 unique models.