What started as a curious exploration of an abandoned space by Karen Tan and her co-founders has morphed into The Projector, a rebellious cultural hub and a vibrant beacon for Singapore’s alternative arts scene
Founded a decade ago, The Projector, Singapore’s only independent cinema has evolved into far more than a place to watch films. It is a cultural institution, a home for alternative voices, boundary-pushing art and a community that thrives on experimentation and creative freedom.
But what you might not know is that the woman behind this groundbreaking space, Karen Tan, spent much of her life grappling with absent-mindedness, until a late diagnosis of attention deficit disorder (ADD) unlocked the truth behind her struggles and, ultimately, her strengths.
Read more: 5 things to know about The Projector, Singapore’s independent cinema
An ADD diagnosis
Tan recounts her childhood as “unremarkable”; perhaps even ideal at first glance. She was a bright, well-behaved student who excelled academically and gave her parents little cause for concern. But Tan was perpetually losing things: wallets, water bottles, phones, even passports. The list of misplaced items was endless.
At the time, comparing herself to her organised peers, it felt like a frustrating quirk she needed to “fix.” It wasn’t until her early thirties, while seeking treatment for depression, that Tan’s psychiatrist suggested she undergo testing for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The diagnosis was ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), the inattentive type without hyperactivity. It was a moment of revelation.
“It was like the penny dropped,” she recalls. “For the first time, I understood why I had always been this way. My brain is just wired differently.”
The diagnosis gave her a new framework to understand her behaviours. Instead of blaming herself for forgetfulness, she began recognising these traits as being neurodivergent. Her natural instinct to make unexpected lateral connections eventually became a creative superpower, a trait that would later shape the experimental spirit at the heart of The Projector.
Early sparks of entrepreneurship
Tan’s first taste of building something came long before The Projector. At Raffles Girls' School (RGS) in the early 1990s, she joined Cybermatrix, a new club where students explored web design and multimedia, despite having no technical background. She was curious, and it was that same curiosity that led her to create things differently throughout her life.
From RGS, she continued along a more traditional academic path, entering Raffles Junior College and eventually enrolling in medicine. While she enjoyed the intellectual challenges of medicine, something felt off. It lacked the creative freedom that she instinctively sought. So, she pursued architecture in Melbourne, before shifting gears to read economics at the London School of Economics to better understand finance.
“I loved architecture school. But in the real world, it just seemed like the people who controlled the money would control the project,” she muses.
She later dove into investment banking, choosing to specialise in real estate deals to gain the skills needed to one day shape urban spaces herself.
Read more: 10 futuristic smart cities that marry innovation with tourism
