There was a time when going online meant hogging the home phone line, sitting through the screech of a dial-up modem, and hoping nobody picked up the receiver halfway through your MSN chat or Adobe Flash games. Holiday photos lived in physical photo albums, songs were enjoyed via cassette tapes or CDs, and the bulky family computer came with a strict time limit enforced by a parent hovering nearby.
Fast forward to today, and the phone in your pocket handles all of that before breakfast. Now AI can draft your emails and plan your next vacation, and a world of info and entertainment is perpetually at our fingertips. It’s easy to forget how many times our gadgets have been swapped out in a single lifetime.
That’s the whole idea behind A Walk Through Time, a free exhibition by Skills Development Academy (SDA) that takes you from the tech you grew up with to the AI tools of today, one item at a time. Warning: you’ll be flooded with major nostalgia as you course through the exhibition zones.
Before we get to the exhibition, here’s a quick memory test. If you grew up in Singapore in the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s, at least a few of these probably passed through your hands, and every one of them will be on display at A Walk Through Time, happening from now till 20th Dec 2026 at various malls throughout Singapore:
If you’re nodding along, you’re exactly who this exhibition was made for. If you’ve never seen half of these, even better: it was made for you too. Yes, we’re looking at you, Gen Z and Gen Alpha youngsters who think the floppy disk in the universal “Save” icon is a vending machine.
A Walk Through Time is a free interactive exhibition by Skills Development Academy, an adult training provider that has helped over 150,000 Singaporeans develop practical, future-ready skills.
You’ll start with familiar setups and nostalgic items from the past, then make your way to the AI era we’re living in today. For those who grew up with the retro items, it’s a reminder of how far things have come. For younger visitors, it’s a rare chance to see the gadgets their parents won’t stop talking about.
The best part: admission is free, so it makes for an easy family outing on a weekend. They’re also conveniently located at malls throughout Singapore, so you’ll be able to jalan jalan and makan before and after the exhibition, all while escaping the heat and haze in a comfortable air-con space.
The first zone is Memory Lane, a row of setups that look like they were lifted straight out of an 80s or 90s HDB estate.
Start at Mama Diam, a recreation of the neighbourhood mama shop with a coin phone, an old-school marble folding table, red plastic stools, and shelves of old-school snacks. It’s where a whole generation once blew their pocket money after school.
Over in the Retro Study Room, you’ll find a CRT monitor, a typewriter, floppy disks, and a fax machine. Plenty of us typed out our first school project at a desk exactly like this one. There was no ChatGPT back in the day to help us with our assignments. Parents, this is your cue to start the “Last time ah…” stories.
In the Retro Living Room, an old-school TV sits on a wooden cabinet alongside a VCR player, a radio cassette player, and a stack of cassette tapes. There’s a Sega Saturn by the TV, an old-school fan, and a traditional telephone set too.
It’s the kind of cosy corner where the whole family once crowded onto the sofa for the evening Channel 8 drama, back when catching up on a show meant being home when it aired. Gosh, who else misses the Golden Age of Mediacorp dramas?
Beyond the room setups, the nostalgic items showcase gathers the gadgets that defined each era in one place. Phone fans can trace the whole line-up, from the Motorola “Big Brother Big” brick phone and pagers to the Nokia 3310, Nokia 8250, Sony Ericsson W20, and BlackBerry 9790. For those who have never experienced the pre-smartphone era, these models were the heavy hitters of the time.
Music lovers get to reminisce many hours of enjoying tunes through a Walkman, Discman, and eventually an MP3 player. And on the communications and transportation front, an assortment of phone cards, old transport cards, a street directory, and a GPS device round out the collection.
The displays are arranged by era, so you can trace how one everyday task changed over the decades. Travel guides give way to GPS navigation and then mobile mapping, while old postcards and tickets sit next to the transport passes that replaced them. A few comparisons that hit hardest:
Every one of those switches felt like a big deal at the time. Someone’s parents swore they’d never need a handphone, and now they can’t get enough of emojis and good morning GIFs. Someone else was convinced online banking was a scam waiting to happen, and now PayLah! and PayNow payments are their default.
AI is simply the next era of change. Like every gadget before it, it’s a lot less intimidating once you’ve actually tried it, and the people who get the most out of it are the ones willing to learn. That’s where the second half of the exhibition comes in.
The second zone, AI Era, opens with an interactive “Spot Which Is AI” challenge for all to partake in. Think you know AI-generated visuals and voices? There are 4 tests here, and it’s surprisingly tough to beat!
Then, move on to the AI Interactive Hub, where the idea is simple: press a button and see what happens. Pick an everyday task like writing an email, creating an image, summarising a meeting, or even creating a brand new song, and the board shows you the common AI tools people use for it, from ChatGPT and Gemini to Canva and Copilot.
It’s a quick way to see that AI isn’t one single app but a whole toolbox, some of which you may already be using without realising.
Then, over at the AI Prompt Lab, a friendly AI guide called Lumo walks you through the C.I.D.O. framework: Context, Instruction, Details, and Output. Pick a prompt, try it out, and see how filling in each part sharpens what the AI gives back.
It’s a low-pressure way to pick up the basics of prompting, which is really just learning how to ask AI the right questions.
Then there’s Grandmaster AI, an AI fortune reading station. Key in your birth details, meet your AI grandmaster for a bazi reading, then print your fortune to take home. It’s a playful first brush with prompting, and an easy one to drag your parents to.
If the stations spark a newfound interest or uncover a skill that you’d like to hone further, SDA also runs AI courses for working adults, covering everything from prompting fundamentals to using AI for content creation.
Here’s where you’ll be able to catch A Walk Through Time, happening from now till 20th December 2026, from 11am to 8pm daily:
Whether you want to relive your growing-up years or finally show your kids what a cassette tape is, A Walk Through Time is an easy, free way to spend an hour or two. Bring the whole family along, and don’t be surprised if the ride home turns into a debate about whose childhood had better tech.
This post was brought to you by Skills Development Academy.
Photography by Chloe Chan.
The exhibition runs daily from 11am to 8pm until 20 December 2026.
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