FREE SCAN JOB is a participatory art happening by the Filipino artist collective Triangulum, takes over Art Lane in the heart of George Town as part of the George Town Festival programme. This one-of-a-kind event invites the public to witness—and become part of—a lively experiment in portraiture, mural-making, and community engagement.

In an era where images are quickly created and discarded with a swipe, FREE SCAN JOB advocates a return to the personal, handcrafted, and deliberate. Visitors are encouraged to sit for a face scan—a portrait captured not by a camera, but by a document scanner—then printed and artistically altered with hand-drawn, intuitive marks. These spontaneous portraits form the foundation of a large-scale communal mural, assembled and unveiled in real time at Art Lane. “More than just an interactive installation, FREE SCAN JOB puts artistic labour in full view— foregrounding the process as much as the product,” said Vanini Belarmino, curator and founder of Belarmino&Partners. “It’s portraiture reimagined as encounter, collaboration, and celebration of the everyday.”

The mural changes daily, shaped by the people who pause, engage, and co-create. Audiences areinvited to join live scanning sessions (2–6 August, 11 AM–6 PM), watch the mural develop (6–10 August), and visit the final installation when it opens on 10 August.

FREE SCAN JOB is the second edition of FOR THE LAB, a pop-up and experimental exhibition series by Belarmino&Partners (ACC 2009), produced in collaboration with Art Lane and ChinaHouse. FOR THE LAB explores the evolving possibilities of a single work through subject, material, and form, inviting artists and audiences to experiment together in intimate, process-driven ways.

Participating Artists: E.S.L. Chen, Frelan “Pakz” Gonzaga, Karina Broce Gonzaga, and Paige Señeres