Slide 1

Reframing the off narratives

In this presentation, we propose a theme reframing the off narratives, in
order to share a perspective and alternative way to re-formulate a kind of
amiss narrative that is lying on our history of media art, in Indonesian
context.
I compose this curatorial idea based on the Ronny Agustinuss essay for
the first OK. Video Festival in 2003, which I see it still have a relevance
with the current development on media art in Indonesia.
Slide 2
In that screen, I show to you how the transmission of knowledge should be
taken up from West to the Indonesia.
BUT,
Slide 3
Indonesia has a discursive and inconsecutive, even rambling, flow in the
case of technology and art history. In Indonesia, the chronology of the
history of thought/ideas about art and technology (as well as all the
practices that followed them) has been run discontinuously, also
disconnected from the course of history happened in the Western World.
The Western great ideas penetrated Indonesia as an idea without its
material basis, while the technology equipment came in as a material
without its historical ideas. (Ronny Agustinus).
For the example, Indonesian people did not experience "the development
of optical technologies" as happened in Europe, also do not have a kind of
polemic on visual experience that hit Europe when the photography and
cinema/film was invented.
The absence of the sequential history of the ideas, where our own history
grows incoherently in our social, cultural and political life, causes us to be
directly reckless to deal with material that is very tempting to be used.
And vice versa, an interesting ideas which came from a faraway country
were adopted without being able to recognize the concrete form of its
material. So, we're stuttered to realize the intended ideas.
It can't be separated from the such socio-cultural circumstances that the
video art in our country also, indirectly, have the same tendency. Video art
has evolved with different stimuli at all with the initial and original
purpose of its discovery.
In the sense, we did not really experience the historical idea that lead the
emergence of digital technology as well.

Slide 4
Discussing of "media art", especially the "video art", I would like to quote
what Agustinus said that the essence of this discourse in Indonesia began
to grow significantly in the hand of 70's generation (followed by the
generation of 90's), who were born and live in the middle of
modernization, the modernization which is an uptake (or loan) from the
Western Culture, and they grew up also in the middle of rapid information
technology and the repression of New Order.
Facing the invasion of advanced technology and the pressure of the
regime at a time, provoke the artists to look for alternative ways to
negotiate, even subvert, the circumstance. The advanced technologies
were then become a new toy and to be a place to channel and express
their aspiration, either vertically to the government and horizontally
against to the people's lifestyles that have been affected by
industrialization and consumerism.
Slide 5
After the Reformation of 1998 (in the post-New Order era), the
development of media in Indonesia has changed significantly, where the
information is no longer centrally controlled by the government, but by a
handful of corporations and political elites. Public versus the media
conglomerate was a discourse that can not be escaped from the attention
of the artists (and media activists). In the fight against grand narratives
produced by the mainstream media, the little narratives among the
communities becomes a new discourse that is promoted as a form of
resistance. This situation allows the artists to be further involved at the
local level and empower their local characteristics for their artistic
element.
Slide 6
Not like the pioneer of video art in the Western who respond the nature of
technology (lets say for the example, Nam June Paik), in the context of
the emergence of video art, the Indonesian artists were encouraged and
affected to make their works by three aspects of reason.
1. Theyre triggered by computer software such as Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe Premiere, which also invade to this country (Its
important to know that the knowledge for technology of computer
had become a study program by academics in Indonesia since
1970s).
2. Theyre technically influenced by cinematographic approach.
3. Due to the common activist agenda in the post-New Order era,
some artists also make a video art work which has a relationship to
the local and little narrative, as a kind of affirmative action to raise
the issue as a counter discourse toward the phenomena of media
conglomerates.
Now, I show you three videos that can be seen as a representative
regarding this curatorial theme. But, please keep in mind that I chose

these three video in the context how the video art run into the most
significant achievement in the beginning of its development in Indonesia.
Slide 7
Video Iqra (Ari Satria Darma, 2005)
Commentary
This video is one of the representative example that relate to first aspect I
mentioned: how artists then utilize computer software. Having a
background as graphic designer who started his career by dealing with
computer technology, Ari perform experimentation to tear apart the
moving image.
In this video, Ari do a kind of social critique toward the visual culture
phenomena that arises due to a flood of advertisements in almost every
corner of the city, and really being visually inherent in our daily lives.
Slide 8
Alam: Syuhada (still)
Slide 9
Alam: Syuhada (Hafiz, 2005)
Commentary
This video as a example that belong to the second aspect I mentioned:
how the artist use the cinematographic approach. In this video, capturing
the view from the window of a public transportation and shooting a young
man, named Alam, Hafiz raised the issue about urban through the
perspectives of ordinary residents from the lower class. Hafiz chose the
small and local narrative to reflect the dynamics of life which is belong to
Jakarta society in the post-New Order era.
This work prioritize an alignments on vernacular perspectives, where
social, cultural, economical and political phenomena is expressed in a way
of simple everyday life. It's like what Jean Rouch said, Alam: Syuhada
become a metaphor of an open window showing us another reality, which
illustrates there's no boundary between imagination and reality.
Slide 10
Segala Dipacok (still)
Slide 11
Segala Dipacok (Aria Kamandanu, 2007)
Slide 12
Commentary
This Kamandanu's video refers to the third aspect that I mentioned. This
"video performance" is one of the outputs of workshops organized by OK.
Video MILITIA 2007. At the event, Ruangrupa involved so many local
communities or collectives from various regions in Indonesia, one of which
is Jatiwangi Art Factory, in Jatiwangi, West Java. A performance done by
Aria in this video is very closely related to local issue in Jatiwangi: the

industry of roof tile, where producing the roof tiles has became one of the
popular livelihood in the area.
Slide 12
Process determine the aesthetic
I argue that OK. Video MILITIA has become a milestone that marks the
further development of video art, and also that its relationship with the
discourse of media art have begun to be discussed widely in the circle of
intellectual and artists in Indonesia. Through this breakthrough, the
discourse about media as a medium of art began to be absorbed by the
people as a knowledge which is as important as other disciplines of
science.
This such collective work, involving local people in their immediate
environment, use participatory and collaborative approach. They then
organize a various kinds of workshops and projects. The final result of
what they do is no longer the main thing, but the process in doing art,
which becomes important.
The activities of communes and collectives that develop network to each
other, is one of the strategies undertaken to perform archiving. Works
based on archives, in this sense, not merely utilize existing materials or
take out of the warehouse, such as from a library or museum. Work based
on archives, refer to the context of art practices in Indonesian media
artists, is meant also to collect so many things in your environment,
documenting them, using them as archives, during the process of creation
of the works. This situation occurs because we do not have a stable and
strong institution for archives management. Community then inevitably
take over the role to develop a kind of autonomous production,
distribution and management of the archives. People do it independently,
especially artists and intellectuals. In this case, the process of collecting
the archives is also in tandem with the action of the knowledge
distribution among the networking and wider audiences.
It also causes the artists have very close proximity to their communities.
Proximity to the local communities where they are located will affect the
aesthetic of their work. Here I show you some of Indonesian artists work
that ever presented in some exhibitions, which represented my
explanation:
Slide 13
Exhibition of Drift
Interactive work of Prilla Tania raised the issue about city, about making
the map of streets and alley in Jakarta which became public memory in
their everyday life. The idea of the exhibition DRIFT itself is to transform
collective memory of urban become documentation and archives that can
be used as information.
Slide 14

Forum Lenteng, Translated Space, 2010

Forum Lenteng juga memiliki fokus pada pengarsipa. Karya interaktif di
ID-Contemporary, Berlin, ini mengubah salah satu ruangan pameran
menjadi persis seperti kamar perpustakaan komunitas yang dimiliki Forum
Lenteng di Jakarta. Dan di dalamnya, juga ditayangkan video live
streaming yang merekam aktivitas anggota Forum Lenteng di Jakarta.
Konsep karya ini meluaskan hubungan antara karya dan audiens, yang
tidak hanya terbatas dalam ruang lingkup galeri saja.
Slide 15
Exhibition of JAF vs Kinetik-Waft performance Jatiwangi
Slide 16
Exhibition of Kurikulab
Slide 17
Gerobak Bioskop