Papers

• Sounds of Democracy in Twenty-first Century Indonesia Audio productions Danishwara Nathaniel Graduate Institute Geneva Irene Stengs Meertens Instituut/Vrije Universiteit Patricia Spyer Graduate Institute Geneva Rizky Sasono University of Pittsburgh

  The study looks at the articulation of democracy in the production of sound and music in twenty-first-century Indonesia. It interrogates arrangements of sound and music as audio-politics – sound politics and the politics of sound. Rather than focusing on the semantic meanings of songs, I will emphasize sound (and visual) in the sphere of contemporary audio productions that show ways in which the conceptualization of democracy is sounded (and visualized). This investigation into sounds of democracy is informed by two theoretical frameworks rooted to the studies of political reform in Indonesia in 1998: “Soundscape of 98” and “demo culture”. First, the soundscape of 98 as sound features of the acoustic environment of continuous political events of a given space and time (Sasono 2019). Second, the increasingly developed culture of demonstration “demo-culture” in the post-Suharto era (Lee 2016). Sound arrangements can be crucial to understanding how different generations engage sounds of democracy and understand democracy itself. The inquiry into sound focuses on three audio productions namely singer-songwriter Jason Ranti, multimedia artist Jompet Kuswidananto, and indie band Tashoora. An investigation into their works provides insight into the different dimensions of sound politics and the politics of sound. Democracy as an artistic concept as well as materialized in various ways reflects the contemporary relations between the regime and practices of art, politics and aesthetics, and sound and society.

• Ternate Image-Makers and the Banda Journal Danishwara Nathaniel Graduate Institute Geneva

  In the age of digital technologies and, specifically in places undergoing democratic transformation such as post-authoritarian Indonesia, images play crucial roles in constituting social relations and in forming collectives. My presentation explores how image-makers and cultural activists who utilize digital/visual media address or redress marginalized histories, intervene in official narratives, and make visible what was previously excluded or repressed. These cultural practitioners manifest their political expression through visual media, which publicly circulate images forming the material grounds of contestation, experimentation, and struggles that constitute the everyday practices of democracy. Attending to how images and image-production are deployed and affect (counter-)publics, as well as images’ roles in developing new kinds of consciousness, put images at the centre of political processes. The focus on images and image-making provide insights and understanding to “work on appearances” that is key to addressing and redressing socio-political invisibilities (Spyer, 2018). Working with cultural practitioners in Ternate as well as a photographer who documented the colonial legacies of present-day Banda Islands in the Moluccas, I inquire into their image-production and its public reception in both urban and virtual settings. Different visions of past and future, controversies surrounding heritage conservation and visions of urban development that represent the city’s identity have been highlighted by different persons and collectives through visual means. Focusing on these practices of image-making, what they do with images, and its impact on how the world comes into being make the relationship between politics and aesthetics explicit.

• The Cute and The Grim Aesthetics of Fantasy in Thailand’s Protests for Democracy Irene Stengs Meertens Instituut/Vrije Universiteit

  This presentation discusses the mobilization of images, gestures and stories from global popular culture in Thailand’s recent protests for democracy or criticizing the absence of democracy. The Thai case shows that in highly contested authoritarian political societies any (audio)visual or visualized imagination – irrespective of its original context – carries the potential to be lifted up and set-apart to be attributed new, localized critical political meaning. In processes of ‘going viral’, (audio)visual imaginations may acquire such a power of expression that the powers that be cannot ignore them. In the form of memes, posters, graffiti, tattoos, performances and re-enactments, which in their turn are visualized and screened as well, these creative reinterpretations become the material substantiation of democracy protests. How to understand the contagious persuasiveness of the hamster song, the hunger games sign, rubber ducks, wizards and other objects and elements from fantasy worlds? This paper aims to investigate the aesthetics of the cute and grim as a powerful force in Thailand’s struggle for democracy.

Abstract